Zwartboek (Black Book)

***1/2 – This Dutch film tells the tale of a Jewish woman’s flight from Nazi authorities and her subsequent activity in an underground resistance movement in the Netherlands during the dying days of World War II. I very much agree with what Kate Winslet astutely pointed out in “Extras” about Holocaust-themed movies ‘We get it. It was grim. Let’s move on.” And while this movie wasn’t directly related to the Holocaust, it certainly leaned in that general direction, and quite frankly there is only so much of that kind of thing that I can watch. That being said, “Zwartboek” was extremely well-made and looked fantastic and authentic. The acting was above-average and the fact that the story was told in such a way that you were never really sure whose side anybody was on until the very end kept it from being overly boring. Where this movie turned out being less than stellar was in its pacing, which was pretty slow throughout its 2 hour 30 minute run time, and in the rather disjointed beginning, which almost made it seem like it was just going to be a bunch of random vignettes of the main character’s life. Luckily, it didn’t end up that way, and finished as a nicely-made, cohesive and surprisingly original film on a subject that often lacks originality.