Black BookMovie Reviews

Poster art for "Black Book."

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Avg. Critic Score: 71 out of 100 Generally favorable reviews Metascore® based on all critic reviews
Information for Parents:
17 not for kids
Read Common Sense Media review

Critic scores range from 0 to 100, with higher scores indicating more favorable reviews.

  • 90
    The Hollywood Reporter | Ray Bennett

    It succeeds on almost all fronts. The epic film is a high-octane adventure rooted in fact with a raft of arresting characters, big action sequences and twists and turns galore. Read full review

  • 88
    USA Today | Claudia Puig

    A hard-core war film with raw violence, intense action, graphic sexuality and a twisting plot that offers a series of surprises. Read full review

  • 88
    Rolling Stone | Peter Travers

    Just for starters, no movie about the Dutch Resistance during World War II has any right to be this wildly entertaining, not to mention this provocative and potently erotic. Read full review

  • 80
    Wall Street Journal | Joe Morgenstern

    Black Book is its own kind of thriller. The film is filled with the genre's conventions -- suspense, betrayal, melodrama, violence, music -- and it's hugely enjoyable from start to finish. Read full review

  • 80
    Los Angeles Times | Kenneth Turan

    As epic as its two-hours-and-25-minute running time indicates, Black Book is as subversive as it is traditional, both enamored of conventional notions of heroism and frankly contemptuous of them. Read full review

  • 80
    Variety | Derek Elley

    Moves like an express train across almost 2 hours without any sense of rush and with strong, empathetic characters etched en route. Read full review

  • 75
    San Francisco Chronicle | Ruthe Stein

    Van Houten, a veteran of European TV, is in almost every scene, and her energetic performance keeps Black Book percolating despite an overstuffed plot that strains credibility and often tips over into melodrama. Read full review

  • 67
    Entertainment Weekly | Lisa Schwarzbaum

    Black Book may be the looniest use of the Holocaust as a playground since Roberto Benigni served up his infernal clown act in "Life Is Beautiful." Read full review

  • 50
    The New York Times | Manohla Dargis

    Black Book works only if you take it for the pulpiest of fiction, not a historical gloss, its stated claims to "true events" notwithstanding. Read full review

  • 30
    Washington Post | Stephen Hunter

    The new Dutch film Black Book manages to turn World War II into a large piece of cheese. A lurid, pulpy, slightly perverse potboiler, the movie suffers mainly from its utter lack of seriousness. Read full review

View more reviews for Black Book on Metacritic

Information for Parents
Common Sense Media says not for kids Mature WWII drama taps into base human instinct.
What Parents Need to Know Parents need to know that this subtitled World War II drama from the director of Basic Instinct is intense from start to finish. Wartime takes its toll on all the characters, robbing them of their humanity. The lead character, Rachel/Ellis, sleeps with the enemy to infiltrate their turf, and people are dispensed with as the killers see fit. The violence is frequent and bloody, the sex is quite graphic, and characters swear, drink, and smoke.
  • Families can talk about the film's notions of good and evil. Are "bad guys" and "good guys" clearly delineated? Should they be? Also, what drives Ellis to place herself in the line of fire? Is it altruism or revenge? How could she fall in love with a Nazi, when Nazis killed her family? What drives a person to betray others for their own gain? Families also can discuss what this movie has in common, if anything, with director Paul Verhoeven's earlier, infamously sensationalistic films, like Basic Instinct and Showgirls. Does it share any characteristics with those movies? Do you think filmmakers have a certain style that affects all of their projects?
The good stuff
  • message true0 Positive messages: Antisemitism, sexism, coercion, torture, and murder are all part and parcel of the storyline and setting. But the heroine is a brave, resourceful woman.
What to watch for
  • violence false5 Violence: Nearly unrelenting violence, played out in full gore. A man is shot and his brain explodes; dead bodies are dug up from mass graves; lots of gunfire, hitting, slapping, and more.
  • sex false5 Sex: Graphic nudity (including a urination scene and full-frontal shots of both men and women), simulated sex acts, sexual banter. Rachel/Ellis dyes her pubic hair in front of a mirror.
  • language false3 Language: Antisemitic hate words and swearing -- "s--t," "damn," etc. -- in subtitles.
  • consumerism false0 Consumerism: No products of note, save for Cadbury and a specific kind of stamp.
  • drugsalcoholtobacco false3 Drinking, drugs and smoking: Apropos for the era, there's plenty of drinking and smoking.
An independent nonprofit dedicated to providing families the information they need to help kids thrive in a world of media and technology. © Common Sense Media Inc. 2010. All rights reserved.

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