[6]

Paul Verhoeven (Turkish Delight, RoboCop) directs this story based on the book by Neel Doff, about an impoverished Dutch immigrant who turns to prostitution to make ends meet and winds up joining the socialist rebellion. Katie Tippel‘s plotline meanders and pushes most of her character transformation to the final act. But while it takes a while to get to the point, the movie’s never boring. Highlights include Katie’s vicious (but deserved) attack on a nasty laundry coworker (she blinds the woman in a bath of lye!) and a humiliating tavern showdown with a woman who calls Katie out for spying on behalf of the local banks. Shortly after that sequence, Katie Tippel‘s action and storytelling get very compressed, leading toward an abrupt and unsatisfying ending that made me wonder if the film was shut down or simply ran out of money. Even though it’s a bit uneven, I enjoyed it more than Verhoeven’s more celebrated Turkish Delight. The film re-teams Turkish Delight co-stars Monique van de Ven as Katie, and Rutger Hauer as a wealthy boyfriend who opens her eyes to economic inequity. Van de Ven carries the movie admirably, capturing a beguiling blend of naivete, well-meaning, and mischief in Katie’s character.