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18 out of 29 people found the following comment useful :-
A Great WW2 Film, 14 November 2007
9/10
Author: hectorious506

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

I saw this movie at the Staten Island Film Festival. There were about 500 people in the audience. The filmmakers stayed after to answer questions which was cool.

It is a compelling love story about a Jewish girl who falls in love with a German soldier in World War 2. The film also has plenty of action. Good battle scenes.

Rachel and Oscar fall in love after he saves her life during a terrible snow storm. He saves her life again when Germans are attacking her Polish village and she and a Jewish boy are at gunpoint.

Oscar sends the two off, instructing them to try to escape to Russia. Rachel travels to the Russian front line but is hunted by German soldiers at each and every turn. Oscar ultimately regrets his decision to send Rachel away and his mother, played by Daryl Hannah, convinces him to go find her. It culminates in an unpredictable and explosive ending.

The film looks great. Roy Scheider, Colm Feore and Kim Coates round out a cast which includes good up and comers in Nina Dobrev, Jonathan Scarfe and Zachary Bennett. The leader of the Russian partisans, played by Lara Daans, is also a standout and arrives on the scene just when you think there's no more plot twists to be had.

Overall, this is a very strong film that paces well, is beautifully shot, has interesting characters and should appeal to everybody.

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12 out of 20 people found the following comment useful :-
An average film, 19 May 2008
2/10
Author: Q-factor from India

I watched this film after giving the good review on IMDb the benefit of the doubt. I have always been a fan of war films, but I have to say this particular one was a big disappointment.

The acting is mostly hammy (especially that of the poet himself; who is a rather overtly sentimental German soldier) and small blunders (Like the boom mike dangling at the top of many frames) don't help.

The story is very predictable and makes one wonder whether the whole WWII genre has been done to death.

If you've read previous reviews and synopses, you would have already gathered that the main hook in the film is the union between the German soldier and the Rabbi's daughter. It barely gets beyond that. Watch only if you've got nothing better to watch.

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13 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
I t could've been better, 23 May 2008
1/10
Author: fa261838 from Belgium

Well this movie is one of those movies that exaggerate everything about the holocaust. I know me writing this would make some people angry but how they show Germans in this movie is just unacceptable. I see in this movie no real love story, just a political statement...Also the part of the German officers mother that pushes her son to go after the girl and put his life in danger is not realistic. The way the Jews react at certain situation, is also something thats not OK. Well it was for me hard to watch but I managed until the end I hope that this would be enough to save you some money... just maybe because of this I should give it more than one, but than again......no

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3 out of 4 people found the following comment useful :-
Horrible! Don't waste your time! Don't watch!!!!!!!, 18 February 2009
1/10
Author: yadid_rh from Israel

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This movie is not just bad, it is horrible! I can't believe someone actually thought it might work! Everything about this movie ain't working!

the script is so absurd, the dialogs seem to be like they were written by an immature! Most of the actors come from the TV world, so the entire movie looks like an exaggerated chapter of a bad show! All the movie is based on the conception that holocaust movies bring audience so they simply try to go on the most absurd stereotypes ever! They push into the episodes so many things of different times and places just in order to increase the WWII stuff so they can hide the many mistakes made on the movie! The love story it self is so idiotic, totally ignore the problematic state the movie is taking place in!

Simply awful! Don't watch!!!!!!

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4 out of 6 people found the following comment useful :-
Third rate movie, 11 August 2008
1/10
Author: tds-26 from United Kingdom

The Poet is a surprisingly poor to mediochre movie, trying hard to jerk a tear. 'Schmalz' describes it well - a sort of 'Fiddler on the Roof' without the charm. It looks thoroughly naive and unsubtle, as if written by a 19-year-old. It even shows the technological innovation of a 'left-handed' bolt action on a rifle. The lisping pseudo-German English dialogue was pointless and distracting to the point of trying hard to send up "Allo, allo!". Even Roy Scheider played a stereotyped rabbi - I expected "Oy, vey!!" at any moment. The battle scenes give paintballing a bad name, with more than a hint of Star Wars special effects. A waste of a good budget. The idea of lovers from opposite political poles might have worked in a re-setting of Romeo & Juliet on the eastern front, but Shakespeare this wasn't.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Bad movie, don't watch, 30 August 2009
Author: agger-1 from Århus, Denmark

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Everything about this movie is bad. I rented it on DVD because I like WWII movies, and the poster suggested something like "Schindler's List" with a love angle ...

But it just doesn't fly. The "Poet" is actually a young German soldier who spends most of the film moping and feeling sorry for himself. Herein consists, far as I can tell, his "poetic demeanor". We are also supposed to sympathize with his troubled conscience over his part in the war. But this is hard, as he is (wait for it!) a spy infiltrating the countryside to report on partisan movements and pave the way for the German invasion of first Poland, then Russia.

When the Jewish couple escapes the massacre of their village, their midwife suggests they get a job on - of all places - a large German base ready for the invasion of Russia. While such employment is obviously treason on the part of Polish civilians and would be severely punished after the war, we are also asked to believe that German soldiers would knowingly accept Jewish non-prisoners as employees while the SS was killing all over the countryside.

We are supposed to be awed by the female lead's love for her "poet", yet she prostitutes herself to German officers at the camp as if a matter of course. Which it would hardly have been for a Jewish village girl in 1941.

The cutting is awful, and almost every scene is theatrically conceited and wholly unbelievable. There's really nothing to like about this movie - avoid at all costs.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Plot hole factory, 4 July 2009
3/10
Author: JGAS

If people in Poland during WWII are offered asylum by transport to Canada instead of Sweden or Switzerland, you know you're in for trouble. The plot had gigantic holes in it. Manslaughter gets no penalty, People make social visits to soldiers at the front unannounced, a bloody face becomes perfect in the next scene. Nine months pass and there is no change in season, yet the day after a blizzard, there is no snow on the ground.

The leading female character was written either so unrealistically or just as a tramp, it was really unbelievable. Giving examples would be spoilers.

I think Darryl Hannah and Roy Scheider may not have been doing great movies, but even they had to be embarrassed to be in this one. It's a good thing I saw it for free.

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1 out of 1 people found the following comment useful :-
Hearts of War, 28 May 2009
2/10
Author: leiser18 from San Jose, CA

I found this movie on DVD at Blockbuster under the above title. I was very disappointed. It was unrealistic and the plot full of holes. The German accents were almost annoying and even hard to understand. The only redeeming quality of this movie was Roy Scheider as the rabbi. At least he seemed believable. Whoever came up with the script should have watched a good Holocaust movie like Schindler's List first before subjecting the public to this mediocre stuff. Darryl Hannah talents were wasted in this film, plus she didn't seem old enough to have a grown (twenty-something) son. Forget about watching The Poet, aka Hearts of War!!!

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2 out of 3 people found the following comment useful :-
In despite of some flaws a good cinema film., 12 May 2009
7/10
Author: adrian_c10 from Amsterdam, Netherlands

I liked the storytelling in this film. Also the plot twists were pleasant and although the end was predictable the storyline is captivating. The romance was realistic, but sometimes a little exaggerated. Rachel's story should be more developed.

The actors were good, the decor was brilliant and the cinematography also.

The flaws I've seen so far: Time errors? No way you can get a baby that fast. Factual error? In this movie some scenes go by too quickly without a good transition of time. Revealing mistakes: Crew equipment and mike visible in at least 3 shots.

In despite of some flaws a good cinema film.

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awful screenplay, 14 July 2009
Author: zghivelder-1 from Brazil

Films about WWII are countless and specially those who focus on brutality and murder of Jews. (Anyway it will always be difficult to match "Schindler's List").But, including all of them, this is the worst that I've ever seen. The screenplay is just awful and the whole story is not to be believed. The main characters engage in a romance that is not love at first sight but at an eye blink. If this would not be enough, the romantic pair is played by amateur actors. I wonder what Roy Scheider is doing in a film like this, although he shows a good performance in a small part, almost a cameo. The same applies to Darryl Hannah. There is a cabaret scene in the film that is simply disrespectful to those Jews who endured persecution and mass assassination.

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