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      The Poet

      R 2007 1 hr. 36 min. Drama List
      Reviews 43% 250+ Ratings Audience Score A German soldier falls in love with a rabbi's daughter and struggles to find her. Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

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      Katrine W Horrible acting, horrible plot. Might be a great watch if you like hate-watching. Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 03/10/23 Full Review Audience Member The Poet - Hearts of War (2007) directed by Damian Lee and written by Jack Crystal is a Holocaust movie which centers around the forbidden love story of a rabbis daughter fleeing persecution and an idealistic German poet turned officer forced to fight in a war he fundamentally does not believe in. Holocaust movies generally are deeply emotional pieces with a straightforward take on an aspect of the holocaust, even the bad movies accomplish that. For example, take The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008), a highly controversial film about the tragic friendship between a Nazi boy whose father runs a death camp, and a Jewish boy who works in the camp. The film has a highly unconventional plot which culminates to a even more unconventional ending. It leaves viewers with a sense of compassion for a high ranking Nazi official, something that made many people, including myself, outraged. Even though the movie focused on the wrong side of the Holocaust, it made the viewers care about the characters presented in the story and developed a plot. The poet did nothing of the sort. For a movie incorporating such a promising idea coupled with well defined characters, it was inexcusably bad. It took a forbidden holocaust love story and somehow made it boring; the writers used some sort of black magic to turn scenes like, the death of a newborn baby or the selfless sacrifice of a lover, into almost feelingless mundane events. It also takes an absurdly large amount of time looking at Oscars discontent with WWII, and wars in general, rather than focusing on developing its own plot. If there was a, “The Holocaust as a Decoration” movie category, The Poet - Hearts of War would fit perfectly into it, unfortunately since that category does not exist, I would have to consider this a tangential Holocaust film. The people scripting this seemed to have a bad case of plot ADHD, the storyline incorporates far too many pieces at once and in the process losses any sense of what it is. I think Gary Goldstein at the Los Angeles Times hit it right on the head when he said “There's a viable story lurking within the World War II melodrama The Poet, but much of it likely landed on the cutting room floor.” The movie has an unfortunate amount of wasted potential. IMDB far too kind with its 5.3/10 rating. The movie was nominated for no awards, has no listing on Metacritics, and not even enough reviews to get a percentage from Rotten Tomatoes. I think it is fair to say the 11 Million Canadian Dollars spent on this movie would have been better used as kindling for a fire to keep Rachel warm at the beginning of the movie, then she would have never needed rescuing and this whole story could have been avoided. In the ending scene of the movie, Oscar states to his captive, “One day this war will end … everyone will go back to normal … at least the dead will not know how futile it was.” Replace the word war with movie and that perfectly sums up my feelings for The Poet - Hearts of War, at least the dead did not have to suffer through it. I would give this movie a well deserved 1.7/10. (I Wrote this Review for a Film Class, Only Reason I Bothered Writing It.) Rated 1 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member If you're going to make a film about Europeans, don't cast Americans in the roles - the types that go to films because of movie stars are not your target audience anyway. This somewhat jarring inauthenticity ruins what is otherwise a well-made tearjerker. Rated 3 out of 5 stars 01/31/23 Full Review Audience Member This is a good movie that paces well, is beautifully shot, has interesting characters and should appeal to everybody... Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/10/23 Full Review Audience Member (**): [img]http://images.rottentomatoes.com/images/user/icons/icon13.gif[/img] This film is just a bit too melodramatic for me. Fair at best. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/18/23 Full Review Audience Member It was OK. That's about all I really have to say. It was not inspired, it was just average. Rated 2 out of 5 stars 02/22/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      Critics Reviews

      View All (3) Critics Reviews
      Gary Goldstein Los Angeles Times There's a viable story lurking within the World War II melodrama The Poet, but much of it likely landed on the cutting room floor. Rated: 2/5 Jun 6, 2008 Full Review Robert Koehler Variety This account of the WWII star-crossed love between a rabbi's daughter and a war-hating Teuton officer wants very much to be taken seriously. This proves impossible, since the script, casting and wartime atmosphere play as pure make-believe. Jun 5, 2008 Full Review Ernest Hardy L.A. Weekly The audience is herded from clich to unintentional farce to insult-to-its-intelligence. Jun 5, 2008 Full Review Read all reviews

      Movie Info

      Synopsis A German soldier falls in love with a rabbi's daughter and struggles to find her.
      Director
      Damian Lee
      Screenwriter
      Jack Crystal
      Production Co
      Crystal Star Productions Ltd, American World Pictures, Alchemist Entertainment, Noble House Film & Television
      Rating
      R (Sexual Content|Some Violence)
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      English
      Release Date (Streaming)
      Dec 15, 2016