Customer Reviews

In Love We Trust

5 star:		(0)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

No surprise to learn director Xiaoshuai Wang studied painting before becoming a director. This is a marvelously composed film. The screenplay is brutal sharp with one large unnecessary gimmick toward the end. I'm glad this theme (see the product description) was done art-house and not commercial melodrama, which it could easily be. The four main performers are solid and compelling, with lots of shots of faces on bodies doing nothing but carrying burden within. And they all pull it off. This is a film with talent coming from every direction, but it is the indie/art-house type. If you partake of that ilk, you'll like this.

This is a good drama movie; main plot is about two divorced couple (who has since remarried) are reunited after their daughter in common is diagnosed with leukemia. After many unsuccessful treatment, the mother resorts to having another child in hope of using the cord blood to match for a bone marrow transplant. She first tries being inseminated, but after three failed attempts, she finally resorts to sleeping with her ex-husband.

At first, the movie seemed like it was focus on the child and how the mother is willing to go all out to protect and heal her. But as the story develops, it's focus is on the adults and the mental stress they have to go through to save a child.

The four primary actors did an excellent job of using their body language to convey lot of messages without dialog. For example, in one scene, the mother is shown flushing the toilet with red substance shortly after trying to be inseminated, and experiences an emotional breakdown. The mother's new husband can come across as "unreal" as it can be very hard for any husband to put up and accept the fact that their wife purposely slept with their ex-husband just for the fact to have a baby. And, the husband goes further and tells her afterwards that he's willing to raise it and accept the future baby as his own even though the wife never tells him that she slept with the ex-husband.

The movie ending was the weakest point. I felt the movie just suddenly dropped when we see the ex-couple goes back to their respective home and have dinner. The husband has dinner with his new wife without any words, and the wife goes home and has dinner with her husband. There's no mention of their relationship after, and no mention if she is pregnant or if the cord blood was able to save the daughter. This should have been some closure to this matter, as this was the focal point of the movie and the main plot that brought the ex's back together for another one-night stand.

(1.) Four stars for the subject matter: presentation of ideas, points and counterpoints on issues of marriage and child bearing in modern China; on issues of marriage faithfulness; and to what extent does a moral dilemma force one to violate some moral beliefs in order to sustain another moral belief.
(2.) Four stars for the pace, tone, setting and acting within the movie. A very simple, clear and convincing presentation by all involved.
(2.) Two stars for the weak resolution of dilemmas and for the movie closure. Special features were inadequate. Needed were better biographies of the crew; a discussion of the dilemmas; a discussion of family values in modern China. One is left with an empty, uncertain feeling as an unintended consequence of the producers wanting an open ended, finish it yourself denouement.