What is love if not a leap of faith? How often do two people throw themselves at each other without reservation and hope for the best? For the love story in “Hearts of War” to work, you must prepare to jump.

It’s the start of World War II in Poland. Hans (Jonathan Scarfe), an undercover German officer posing as a member of the Polish resistance, rescues an unconscious Jewish woman, Rachel (Nina Dobrev),  in a snow storm. He brings her to his empty farmhouse base, puts her in bed and restores her to health. He knows she’s Jewish because of a necklace she wears, but he isn’t a Nazi sympathizer–in spite of his rank–and doesn’t care. When she regains consciousness, they don’t share more than a dozen words before making love…even though they are total strangers…even though she is about to marry another man. When they are finished, they decide they’ve discovered true love.

Their love nest is ruined when Hans’ fellow soldiers return to base. Hans sends Rachel home with a promise to visit. Unfortunately, the ugly reality of the war takes hold, and he arrives barely in time to save Rachel and her fiance from a death squad.

Their next separation is one of survival and more than a year of longing.

Will their love withstand the war, the Holocaust, her unintended pregnancy from their trist and her marriage to another man? There is only one way to find out.

The most notable part of the movie is that the late Roy Scheider (”Jaws” and “The French Connection“) has a brief role as a rabbi. Daryl Hannah (”Kill Bill,” “Roxanne” and “Splash“) also stars as Hans’ mother.

Scheider is good, but there isn’t enough of him. He also could have used a few catch phrases such as “We’re gonna need a bigger resistance” or “Smile you sonofa…BLAM!” as he blows the head off an SS trooper.

Hannah doesn’t fare as well. Her German accent isn’t bad, but it seems to stiffen her performance.

The thing that really got me was the intense quality of the film’s production values. The cinematography is beautiful. The lighting and color mixture come through in that soft, but attractive, style that is so often used in WWII dramas. The attention paid to detail was quite good for a lower budget film: uniforms, sets, locations, etc.

Die-hard fans of Scheider might want to check this out because I don’t know how many other projects he worked on before his death. It was good to see him again on film. He is definitely missed.