[New-Poetry] "The Poet" film review

[jforjames at aol.com]

http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/la-et-capsules6-2008jun06,0,2544565.story

Unlikely stanzas from 'The Poet'


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 plot's connective tissue is deficient from the start as Oskar (Jonathan Scarfe), a disillusioned, poetry-spouting German soldier, rescues Rachel (Nina Dobrev), the beautiful daughter of a Polish rabbi, from a horrific snowstorm, beds her, then instantly declares his love for the "verboten," already-engaged Jewess. This sets off a string of equally hasty and unconvincing sequences separating Rachel and Oskar until their contrived, third-act reunion at a German military camp on the Russian front. A string of implausibilities follows, abetted by the largely Canadian cast's spotty Eastern European accents, Daryl Hannah's overly measured turn as Oskar's saintly mother and the late Roy Scheider's cameo as an avuncular rabbi who gives "open-minded" new meaning.

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Gary Goldstein

"The Poet." Unrated. Running time: 1 hour, 36 minutes. At Laemmle's Music Hall, 9036 Wilshire Blvd., Beverly Hills, (310) 274-6869.

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