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Jakob Heym (Robin Williams in overbearingly earnest mode) gets tangled in a string of self-perpetuating lies about a hidden radio, supposedly broadcasting news that the victorious Red Army is nearing. His desperate attempts to convince a clutch of insistently idiosyncratic friends (clichés to a man: Liev Schreiber, Bob Balaban, Michael Jeter, Alan Arkin) and obligatory Nazi bad guys that the radio doesn't exist are complicated by the fact that he's stashed a fugitive kid (a dead ringer--sorry!--for Anne Frank) in his attic--and by abundant evidence that lies are the best medicine for the ghetto's skyrocketing suicide rate. Copious unfunny misunderstandings and pratfalls eventuate in this Holocaust rendition of Fiddler on the Roof (you expect Williams to break into song: "If I were a funny man...."). Ultimately, Jakob the Liar loses its way for good in some very ugly violence and a rather nasty final twist: the film's ending might just be rubbing our noses in another feel-good lie. --Kathleen Murphy
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4.0 out of 5 stars
ONE OF THE BETTER MOVIES TO INTRODUCE KIDS TO HOLOCAUST,
By
This review is from: Jakob the Liar (DVD)
I have not read the book but I greatly enjoyed the movie. Good narrative, excellent cinematography, and some stunning background music. While the film may be held guilty for some cardboard characters (e.g., all Germans are mean looking men), Robin Williams was surely under-appreciated in his very concvincing cameo as Jakob, a pancake vendor, who pretends to have a radio and distribute good news to other Jews in the ghetto -- and I don't mean just the accent. The guy is brilliant. The theme is a cross between "Goodmorning Vietnam" meets "Life is beautiful" -- classic cultural interpretations of the forced lifestyle of the characters promote the effect of a rumour that a working radio exists in the barbed-wire ghetto, allowing a lowly pancake-vendor to raise to heroic proportions amidst his small group of associates and lie in the face of hope-dashing truth. At its heart, the story is about the irrefutable spirit of human life despite seemingly unsurmountable odds as Jakob deals with the consequences of either perpetuating his lie or coming out with the whole truth, weighing hope against despair. Swept up in his own joking accident and a few well-timed coincidences, endorsed by the ghetto residents, the ghetto organizes to resist their Nazi oppressors. As the fall of the Third Reich becomes more and more likely, the tangle of truth and falsity tightens around Jakob and each lie becomes more and more needed. An interesting angle to look at the Holocaust, it serves as one of the better movies to introduce younger audiences to that odious period of human history. Oh, and did I mention that the background score is marvellous?
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Movie!,
By Linda Benske (Delafield, Wisconsin United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Jakob the Liar (DVD)
This movie should be placed among the timeless World War Two classics such as Schindler's List and Life Is Beautiful. It is truly one of Williams best performances since Goodwill Hunting. It acurately portrays the life of people during the Jewish Holocaust. Iwas touched deeply by this movie and moved by the great performance of Williams and the rest of the cast. Peter Kassovitz establishes himself as a great director with this movie. The book was great and the movie was even better!
1.0 out of 5 stars
Revisionist garbage,
By Joseph (Montreal, QC) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Jakob the Liar (DVD)
Unfortunately, in the satirical "Jakob the Liar," we are yet again engulfed with negative portrayals of the Nazi regime - they are all, without exception, demonized as monsters - and the Jewish occupants of the Warsaw Ghetto are hoping for the Jakob's lie to come true, that the Communists come and 'save' them from their captors. As history has shown, Communists brought exponentially worse barbarism to these persecuted folk and, if anything, the Germans had behaved like gentleman with them in comparison; these latter would often be remembered for turning a blind eye to the odd son, daughter or mother who pleaded to be set free temporarily for any small reason - and never, of course, to return. In "Jakob," there is no compassion on the part of the troops. No laughter or camaraderie among the Jewish people (the character playing the barber follows the trend of suicides en masse, without even saying goodbye to his pal Jakob), and, in the end, the prospect of a positive ending - the type of ending the film makes you believe is coming - is foiled instead for yet another shot at the beleaguered Nazi militia, though I won't specify in what sense exactly.
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