Most of the Dutch press were positive about the film. Dana Linsen writes in "NRC Handelsblad": "In "Black Book", Verhoeven does not focus on moral discourse but rather on human measure, and with the non-cynical approach of his female lead and of love he has given new colour to his work." Belinda van de Graaf in "Trouw" writes: "Breathless we run along burning farms, ugly resistance fighters, pretty kraut whores, spies, traitors, and because the story has to go on the coincidences pile up until it makes you laugh. When Carice van Houten screams 'Will it never stop, then!' it is almost kitsch, and not surprisingly already a classic film quote." She compares this film to "Soldier of Orange" and explains why this film is not a stereotypical war film: "The war adventure is no longer based on the male character of the type Rutger Hauer, with his machismo and testosterone, but the small fighter Carice van Houten". Literary critic Jessica Durlacher, daughter of an Auschwitz survivor, describes the film in "Vrij Nederland" with the following comparison: "The reality of 1940–1945 as portrayed in "Black Book" compared to reality is like the Eiffel Tower in Las Vegas compared to the original in Paris."