...if you are looking for a thrilling story set during the Second World War, this is likely to satisfy you. If you are looking for an faithful adaptation of Helene Moszkiewiez's autobiography then forget it. A lot of what is portrayed here is vamped-up romanticised Hollywood gloss done so in order to unnecessarily embellish what was already an interesting story. Though it is gripping in parts and Martha Plimpton is well-cast as the intrepid young Jew who fools Nazi officials into giving her a job as a Gestapo spy, I would like to point out a few serious flaws in the re-worked plot. Firstly, Helene was not academic and had no intention of going to university. Far from it, in fact; she hated school. Secondly - and this correction is absolutely necessary - she did not have any romantic relationship with Franz Bueller. Having met him, he introduced her to the ways of the Resistance and she posed as his fiancée throughout the Nazi occupation, but he was in actual fact a double-agent whom she was glad to see hanged for treason at the end of the war. His romantic interests in fact lay elsewhere, mainly with a mistress and two children. Helene herself actually did marry her admirer Albert (although I can't actually remember if he died in the circumstances that were played out in the film). The Jew-catcher part was true although not the chase scene. He was himself Jewish - and saved his own skin by agreeing to help catch Jews for the Gestapo with his amazing ability to "detect" a Jew based on one glance - and though he did alert her bosses to their pretty young employee's true ethnic identity, he was not believed and was reprimanded for making what seemed an utterly erroneous observation. His claim was ignored and he left her alone, eventually being shipped off to join his already forsaken wife and children in the death camps.
I'm sorry but I do not like real-life stories being corrupted so just to keep it in the Hollywood mainstream. The story was fascinating. Helene Moszkiewiez was a remarkably courageous polymath who lived entirely on her wits and was not a woman to be messed with. When watching this film I was gripped and intrigued - it is a good film - but not a patch on the book
