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While Black Book, the story of a Jewish woman who join the Dutch resistance as an undercover spy, may seem more elevated fare than director Paul Verhoeven is generally known for, he still manages to bring his trademark erotic touch to the proceedings while using a filmmaking style that's more Casablanca than Basic Instinct.

40s-faced Kewpie doll Carice Van Houten plays Rachel Stein, a singer forced to go into hiding upon the Nazi occupation of Holland. After watching her family murdered before her eyes while attempting to escape to Belgium, Rachel changes her name to Ellis DeVries and reinvents herself as a Mata Hari for the bedraggled and idealistic resistance. Ellis quickly beds and enthralls Hauptstormführer Ludwig Münze (Sebastian Koch) in a series of highly erotic seduction scenes that leave nothing of Ellis to the imagination.

Van Houten gives a brave performance, and not just because of the sex scenes. She plays Ellis's will to survive as an animal force that comes from both desperation and hope. Early in the film, Ellis flashes her legs at a group of soldiers, giving them her sunny performer's smile--and it's the sexiest image in the whole film. She's an icon of the Second World War, the irrepressible survivor, the girl who continues to captivate our imagination when we think of the European home front. As brave and resourceful as Ellis is, Van Houten keeps her from becoming a goddess on a pedestal by playing Ellis's vulnerability both as a Jew and as a woman in love.

That's right--the Jew and the Nazi are together at last, as if The Night Porter never happened. Somehow, Van Houten and Koch sell their love affair, making it believable to the point of tragedy. American audiences will be familiar with Koch from the recent Academy Award-winning The Lives of Others, and he turns in another deeply nuanced performance in Black Book. And special notice should be given to Halina Reijn, secretary and lover to one of Münze's colleagues. It's a small role, but Reijn gives a delightful performance that's a wonderful counterpoint to Van Houten's.

Verhoeven is a master action director, and Black Book contains several breathtakingly expert sequences. In one, he juxtaposes a birthday party for Hitler with a rescue attempt in the bowels of the SD headquarters, Ellis shifting gears from saboteur to chanteuse in a red dress with blackened feet from scrambling up a pile of coal. Unfortunately, his sense of structuring falters with an overstuffed third act that takes one-too-many turns, bringing an otherwise fast-paced story into the realm of "is it over yet?"