Posted: 06/10/2009

In Love We Trust

by Elaine Hegwood Bowen

In Love We Trust is a story of a divorced couple who has to make hard, fast choices in an effort to save their young daughter, named Hehe, who’s fighting for her life, after being diagnosed with cancer. The film is set in China, and because of the two-child rule, the girl’s parents, who have since remarried, struggle with a politically correct answer to save the child.

The young girl has been raised by her mother and stepfather, but the logical answer for bone marrow lies in the divorced couple coming together—one last time—to have a child whose umbilical cord blood would ultimately save the young girl.

This decision is at the crux of the movie; how much will it tear up Mei Zhu and Lao Xie, as they work hard to take care of their daughter’s medical needs, while her birth father (Xiao Lu) sort of comes around every once in a while to visit, while he desperately tries to hold onto his construction business?

In Love We Trust “touches upon contemporary society and family life, as well as the moral and ethical dilemmas brought on by modernity.”

Film Movement has done it again with a story that is so touching: you’re rooting for the girl to live; you’re moved by her birth father’s position of being caught up in a difficult situation, while his current wife tries to deal with everything that’s going on; and you feel sorry for the stepfather, who seems to just go along with all that is happening while showing deep love and affection for both his stepdaughter and wife.
We learn secrets about past failed pregnancies with Mei Zhu and the hurt that Lao Xie feels in knowing that if she has another child with her ex-husband, then that means that he won’t ever be able to have a natural child of his own.

On the other hand, Xiao Lu’s wife frets because so far they haven’t had a child of their own, because Xiao Lu keeps putting it off. She’s confused and upset that he is even considering having another child with Mei Zhu, and her sentiments run deeper than the “act of conception.”

Eventually, Hehe’s mother convinces the birth father to agree to artificial insemination, but that procedure doesn’t take—even after the nurse breaks the rules and lets Mei Zhu try it more times than she’s allowed.
Mei Zhu is committed to doing anything necessary to save her young daughter at all costs. And she devises a plan of betrayal that involves she and Xiao Lu (the birth father) having sex the good, old-fashioned way.
Can she pull this off, without her husband or Xiao Lu’s wife finding out? What guilt will she bear for the rest of her life by betraying her husband? How will Xiao Lu find the courage to help his daughter at the risk of losing his wife? And finally, can Lao Xie and Mei Zhu’s love for each other and Hehe survive all this turmoil, as they fight for Hehe’s survival.
In Love We Trust is a great film; out on DVD by Film Movement. Visit the Web site at www.filmmovement.com.

Elaine Hegwood Bowen is an editor, writer and film critic in Chicago.

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