Black Book starts out well enough, more of a pot-boiler than a realistic depiction of WWII, but by the time we reach the last 30/45 minutes....WTF just happened to this movie!!!
The end of this film is amazingly bad, think 'Showgirls Go Nazi'.
One ridiculous plot twist after another, previously sympathetic characters become big bad villains in the link of an eye, gratuitous nudity and gore abound, subtle acting goes flying out the door...the whole thing turns into a cartoon.
An example of how bad this is:
When the Allies liberate the Germans and round up the Nazis and collaborators, our heroine is among those collaborators. She is stripped naked and a large overhead vat filled with human shit is poured over her!!!
Yes, you read right...those overhead vats of shit were everywhere you looked in WWII Germany and you just couldn't stop the liberators from dumping shit on their captives
It's quite one thing to go over-the-top and be outrageous when you're dealing with giant bugs, Vegas showgirls, invisible men, etc, but when you're filming a 'realistic' WWII drama, jeez!
I was laughing my ass off!
Time was pretty good tale of lovers trying to rekindle their soured relationship by altering their facial features through plastic surgery while keeping their true identity a secret from each other. The film had the same feel as Kim's previous film 3-Iron (but the characters here do talk to each other!)
I didn't see
Little Children, but two of my friends did and hated it. They described it as an obvious and manipulative "Oscar contender" complete with un-necessary narration and a syrupy score. They said that the film had none of the subtlety that Todd Field displayed in
In The Bedroom, but the film itself wasn't without interest.