Black Book

I caught this wonderful movie at Cathay Picturehouse this afternoon. It is a story of the Rachel Stein's encounter during the World War II at The Hague. She was a Jew in hiding from the Nazis' prosecution.

While trying to escape from the Nazis in Dutch, she and her family were double crossed by a "Samaritan" police officer. While crossing the river, all the Jews on board was massacred and ransacked of their valuable! Rachel was lucky to escape and taken refuge with the Resistance.

She worked to earn her stay in the refuge and was soon turned into a spy. Taking the new identity Ellis de Vries, her mission evolved from a simple companion to espionage duty to seduce an SD Colonel, Muntze.

Ill-fate beheld our lady heroine. While she remained faithful to the Resistance, she cant' help falling in love the Muntze. A comrade spy, Hans Akkermans, was also in love with Rachel and resented her for loving another man.

She was unfortunately caught in the middle of the cross selling and double crossing, resulted in both the Nazis and Resistance wanting her dead. Who was trustworthy? Who was the real traitor? Who has benefited from the war? It is true that one must be careful to trust anyone in such trouble times.

I totally empathise with our lady heroine for her lost of her family and her man. It is unbelievable she has to go through so much and yet remain so calm and quick witted. I salute and admire her courage and guts! Carice van Houten is a damn pretty and amazing actress. You can't help but love and hate her at the same time.

Many twists and turns in the story. You will be on the edge of the movie from start to end! Excellent execution of screenplay and story to keep the movie going and exciting all the way. It was an extremely intriguing movie. I'm generally not a fan of violent or war movie, but this one definitely captured my heart and attention. A movie worth watching anytime of the day!

Rating: 4 out of 5 fairy clouds.