Movie Reviews

Review in a Hurry: Director Paul Verhoeven is fond of putting Nazi allegories into movies like RoboCop and Starship Troopers. This time, he skips the allegory and goes straight to the actual Nazis.

The Bigger Picture: In 1950s Israel, a schoolteacher and housewife named Rachel (Carice van Houten, in a star-making performance) remembers her life during World War II. She joined the Dutch resistance in Holland, where she worked to infiltrate the SS by any means necessary, including using sex to get close to Nazis. But when she concludes that not everyone in the resistance is on the level, and not every Nazi is a murderous pervert, her allegiances are called into question.

We know she’ll survive, because it’s a flashback, and that tends to undercut the tension that would otherwise be palpable. Instead, one must focus on what Rachel’s actions do to those around her: Who can be trusted? Whom will she accidentally hurt? This being Verhoeven, sexuality and extreme violence are not shied away from. It’s a badass, hard-core Verhoeven World War II movie, for all that entails.

Just a few missteps keep it from being as great as it should. For example, it takes the main characters the entire movie to finger a traitor who seems obviously dubious from the get-go.

The 180—a Second Opinion: Verhoeven’s Nazis use “War on Terror”-type buzzwords, and some of the scenes in Israel imply that its modern-day government is no better than the one Rachel escaped. You don’t have to be a conservative to find that kind of thinking overly simplistic, but if you’re looking to pick a fight with the movie, go after the underlying politics.