It is the final years of WWII in Holland, 1944, the conflict working its slow and brutally destructive way to a close. After the farmhouse she is hiding in is accidentally bombed by a crashing British plane, Rachel Stein (Carice Van Houten) decides to make the dangerous trip to Belgium via boat. Meeting up with her parents and brother for the first time in years, she is at first excited about their prospects. But after the vessel is attacked by a German patrol leaving all aboard dead save her, Rachel realizes she can’t just run away and hide.

Soon she meets up with the Dutch resistance, including the dashing doctor Hans Akkermans (Thom Hoffman) and his local superior Gerben Kuipers (Derek de Lint). Rechristened Ellis de Vries and her raven hair died a ravishing movie star blonde, this new freedom fighter throws herself into helping her countrymen liberate themselves from German rule. Things do not always go as planned, however, and when Kuipers’ son is arrested and thrown in prison by the sadistic SD officer Franken (Waldemar Kobus) Rachel must ask just how far she is willing to go to support the cause.

How far is straight into the bed of Ludwig Müntze (Sebastian Koch), the head of the local SD and a man who has also suffered great personal loss during the war. Rachel is drawn to him almost immediately, discovering that, in spite of all the atrocities going on around him, this commander has managed to immerge from the chaos with his decency intact.

Entering into a torrid affair, he looks the other way when he discovers his newfound lover is really a Jew in hiding. But things do not play out the way either hopes, a mole deep within the resistance sabotaging both an escape attempt for the prisoners and this twosome’s burgeoning romance. Now Rachel is being blamed for all of it, and the only way to survive the end of the war and the beginning of the peace is to figure out who the real traitor is before it is too late.

Only four months into the year and wonderful German actor Koch (whe is phenomenal here) has already starred in two of my absolute favorite motion pictures of 2007. Between this and the The Lives of Others he is quickly becoming a signature signpost designating cinematic excellence. Of course, technically both that recent Oscar-winner for Best Foreign Language Film and now Paul Verhoeven’s (Robocop, Basic Instinct) Black Book are both 2006 releases, but as they didn’t open on these shores until now I’m not about to hold such a minor thing as that against either of them.

Verhoeven’s 1973 epic Turks Fruit (Turkish Delight) was honored in 1999 as the best Dutch production of the 20^th Century, while his 1977 war opus Soldier of Orange starring Rutger Hauer is one of my absolute favorites of all time. Now, over twenty years since his last filmic foray inside the Netherlands, the groundbreaking and iconoclastic auteur has returned home and crafted one of his finest epics, this daring and wholly original espionage thriller as fantastic and exhilarating as anything I am likely to see this year.

Moving like lightening, the 140-minute plus opus hits the ground running and then refuses to let up. At the start, Rachel Stein is a rube; a trusting fool prime to be taken advantage of and then left for dead at the side of the road. By the time things are over, she’s as cool a cucumber as you’re ever likely to find; an instinctual huntress willing to do whatever it takes to forage out a bit of happiness, maybe even love, in this horrific quagmire the men around her call war.

It is an ultimate betrayal, however, that truly unleashes the lioness within. If love is a forbidden fruit, than attempting to take it away from those who have truly earned it is cause for the ultimate penalty. Revenge quickly becomes this woman’s calling card, her final moves across the chessboard teaming up with those who have been equally stabbed in the back as brilliant a play as any this side of Bobby Fisher.

A role of this massive scope requires one heck of an actress to pull it off, and Verhoeven certainly found his lady in Van Houten. The woman is a marvel, her transformation as fascinating and an invigorating as any I could ever hope to experience. This is a female character for the ages, a completely feminine warrior unafraid to express her sexuality yet still managing to not lose either her moral compass or her penchant for tearful compassion in the midst of inhuman interpersonal warfare. She is, without question, magnificent, and her onscreen evolution is altogether remarkable.

What might be even more stunning is that Verhoeven, working with frequent screenwriter Gerard Soeteman for the fist time since Flesh & Blood, has created a woman who is not manipulative, not opportunist, not only out for her own material (or sexual) gain. She is, instead, a real woman of true flesh and living blood. While there are the usual extravagancies for the filmmaker (a scene of Rachel coloring her pubic hair seemed particularly self-indulgent and crass), overall this is a girl I could really relate to. This isn’t The Fourth Man, not Basic Instinct, not Showgirls. Instead, Black Book is a drama about survival featuring three dimensional creations going beyond caricature, and just when you think you have them figured out lo and behold but suddenly they do the darndest expressionistic thing to surprise you.

Some are not going to go for this. After almost fifty years behind the camera, Verhoeven still pushes boundaries like almost no other director today. This is out of control and freewheeling cinema at its very best, guaranteed to enthrall and offend, sometimes in equal measures, virtually frame to frame. More, the film is paced like a bullet shot from a gun, never slowing and forcing the viewer to inhabit the same breakneck modis operandi as its glorious heroine.

While I probably could have done with a little less nudity (and didn’t need to see one of my favorite characters covered in human waste) this movie thrilled and exhilarated me like almost no other picture this year. Returning to the Netherlands has been a godsend for Verhoeven, energizing his talents and focusing his directorial powers like never before. I loved this, absolutely and without reservations. It is, if I may say so, flawless, Black Book must-see entertainment worthy of repeat visits.

Film Rating: êêêê  (out of 4)