A new Paul Verhoeven film usually sparks a good amount of interest from me. I have always found his style very engaging as he never shy's away from the tone he is going for. Verhoeven always goes to the extreme.
To any outsiders, your typical Verhoeven flick consists of extreme violence and nudity to cover themes of humanity's obsession with violence and sex. He also flirts into the realms of satire but never quite fully committing.
With his latest release, it has bit of everything that you have seen Verhoeven portray over the years. The tone does move around a bit from serious to campy, to that vintage Verhoeven eroticism with hints of surrealism. But no matter how silly it gets at points, you can't take your eyes off it.
I felt the cast did a good job of fitted to the tone. While there were some over-the-top moments, they never manage to take you out of film and feel out of place.
Virginia Efira did a great job in the lead. I saw a lot of power and confidence in her performance and I can see her become Verhoeven's newest regular collaborator. Having the experience of Charlotte Rampling in this as that kept the serious aspect of the film in check. I must mention the support by Daphne Patakia as I felt it helped a lot in elevating Efira's performance.
The production design is pretty good on the whole. The locations used and costumes designs perfectly fit into the time period and the small use of visual effects never felt out of place and executed the surreal and dream sequences really well.
I thought this was pretty good in the end. The beautiful, striking, shocking and sometimes surreal imagery makes it really come alive and it makes it hard to be a boring watch. There's plenty of content that you need to see to believe and I like how it constantly bounces between making you think this is all a joke or if its taking itself seriously.
We see themes such as power, womanhood, sexuality and the dysfunctional nature of religion all covered with that typical Verhoeven softcore erotica to spice things up. If you like Verhoeven's previous successes such as RoboCop, Total Recall, Basic Instinct, Showgirls, Starship Troopers, Black Book or Elle, then this is more of the same.
It's thrilling, exciting, sexy, a bit campy, silly and surreal times and gets you to a point that you're not bothered by its issues.
Rating: 7/10
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