most excellent

Amidst all the crappy movies available these days, I must say that this movie was most excellent in every way. Well, almost.

Netherlands, WW2.
Rachel Stein is a young Jewish singer, hiding from the Nazis. She gets a warning that her hiding place is located by Germans and must evacuate. Unfortunately the cross-over does not go well since all people aboard are killed, except Rachel who manages to escape and is rescued. After this, she joins the Resistance and is given a fake ID; her new name is now Ellis de Vries. Part of a Resistance plan goes wrong and she by chance meets an SS official, Muntze, on a train. She eventually gains his trust and is given a job in his office. But it is all part of a plan, for she is trying to finding the person who betrayed her family and the many other Jews on the boat. In the end, she is seen as the betrayer from both sides. Will she be able to prove her innocence?

Extremely well-directed.
Extremely well-written. The writers didn't think the viewers were stupid, and everything mentioned/shown was for a reason. I don't like spoilers, so I'll just give one example:
When Ellis opens a door, her beautiful shoes and her feet get dirty - I'm thinking, hmmm how will she ever get that dirt off her? And there she goes, cleaning the dirt off by putting her feet and shoes in the toilet and flushing!! And ta-da, she will be presentable at the party...

Hats off to the casting directors because I honestly haven't seen such a great cast in a long time. And most excellent actors.

In my opinion, this film has one of the best art direction.
Beautifully photographed as well.

So, what's missing? It's a little too slick, a little too Hollywoodsy for me.

Nonetheless a beautiful film.
VERY recommended.

NOTE: Be prepared for some tears, but mostly anger as some scenes are quite terrible (not because of violence, but there are rather sick scenes that require you to go back in time and think of humiliation and how some people took advantage of others in such times - very well described in the movie); and anger for the injustice that war brought to everyone.


9/10