Hearts of War

Heartbreaking and Beautiful!!!!
Having always been attracted to the concept of forbidden love, the idea of a German soldier falling in love with a Jewish girl during the WWII era was too good to pass up when I saw it at the video store.
The story was passionate and entrathalling... I could not turn away despite the numerous pitfalls that occur to the lead actors. Both Oskar and Rachel start off in the story as naive and romantic people, whose love is disrupted by the cruelties of the war and the expectations of Oskar by his general father. As the story progresses, the harsh realities of war force these two to grow up and do unthinkable things. Oskar becomes his father's son and furthers the German cause, learning to kill in the blink of an eye. Rachel, on the other hand, is forced to become a prostitute for German soldiers in order to feed and clothe her baby. Bernard, her husband, has to accept it all because he loves Rachel and the baby she had with Oskar.
Survival becomes the key element of this story,...

Lacks credibility
"Hearts of War" was originally titled "The Poet" [the European release], and is a Holocaust/WW II drama. The movie begins in 1939 as the Germans invade and occupy Poland. Rachel [Nina Dobrev] is a rabbi's daughter who gets lost in a snowstorm and is rescued by an undercover German officer, Oscar Koenig [Jonathan Scarfe]. The next morning, Rachel awakes to see the smitten Oscar and they both make love. This is the beginning of a series of plot implausibilities. Even if one were to take into account that both Rachel and Oscar genuinely fell in love, I think the story would have had more credibility if they had at least spent a bit more time getting to know each other. I mean, Rachel is an orthodox rabbi's daughter and betrothed to someone else! I do not think it was common for a girl of such upbringing to fling convention to the winds and have sex with a virtual, albeit handsome stranger.

That aside, the movie just does not flow well - there are a few different story arcs...

Dead poet society
Inside 'The Poet' (appallingly retitled 'Hearts of war') there may be a decent film trying to get out, but it's buried so deep that one is forced to wonder. Jack Crystal's impossible script smothers any kind of reality, any kind of honesty... through the provision of one cliché after another until the film becomes utterly un-watchable and unintentionally laughable.

The main plot device of 'The Poet' centres around Wehrmacht Officer Oscar Koenig (Johnathan Scarfe), a bog standard 'Good German' stereotype who falls in love with a hopelessly sweet Rabbi's daughter, Rachel (Nina Dobrev), itself a Hollywood stereotype. Unfortunately, for Oskar, his squeeze is already set to marry her unbelievably noble Jewish fiancé Bernard (Zachary Bennett), who even when he finds out that his potential missus has done the dirty on him behind his back (with a German of all things), still decides to marry Rachel and bring up the kid. Oskar helps Rachel and Bernard escape and asks...

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