Other Titles • Jakob the Liar • Jakob der Lügner (1999)
Synopses for Jakob the Liar (1999)
1.
In Nazi-occupied Poland at the height of World War II, impoverished cafe owner Jakob (Williams) keeps hope and humor alive in the Jewish ghetto by reporting fictitious news bulletins about the Allied forces' advances against the Nazis to his fellow prisoners. Meanwhile, the Germans learn of the mythical radio and begin a search for the resistance hero who dares operate it. A remake of the 1974 German film, JAKOB, DER LUGNER.
(25 votes)
2.
In Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II, poor Jewish cafe owner Jakob Heym (Oscar-winner Robin Williams (Best Supporting Actor, 1997, Good Will Hunting)) accidentally overhears a forbidden radio news bulletin signaling Soviet military successes against German forces. To combat the overwhelming depression that pervades the ghetto, Jakob invents fictitious news bulletins about Allied advances against the Nazis. These lies keep hope and humor alive among the ghetto inhabitants - spirits are lifted, hearts are refreshed, and optimism is reborn. The Germans learn of the mythical radio and begin a search for the resistance hero who dares operate it.
(25 votes)
3.
Jakob the Liar has a hard road to travel, since--Roberto Benigni's Life is Beautiful aside--milking the Holocaust for laughs is a dangerous game. Even the blackest, most therapeutic humour turns queasy in the shadow of such monstrous evil: it's like dancing on a mass grave. Here the eponymous schlemiel plays out his semi-farcical adventures in the mean streets of the Warsaw Ghetto circa 1944. The skies are always leaden over Jakob's hometown, reflecting the comic climate that pervades this mostly unfortunate adaptation of Jurek Becker's autobiographical book (first filmed in 1975). 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 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 abound in this Holocaust rendition of Fiddler on the Roof (you expect Williams to break into "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, Amazon.com
(25 votes)
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