Jakob the Liar

1999

Action / Comedy / Drama / War

13
Rotten Tomatoes Critics - Rotten 63% · 71 reviews
Rotten Tomatoes Audience - Upright 63% · 10K ratings
IMDb Rating 6.5/10 10 18628 18.6K

based on novel or book jewish ghetto polish resistance jewry hope ss (nazi schutzstaffel)

Plot summary

In 1944 Poland, a Jewish shop keeper named Jakob is summoned to ghetto headquarters after being caught out after curfew. While waiting for the German Kommondant, Jakob overhears a German radio broadcast about Russian troop movements. Returned to the ghetto, the shopkeeper shares his information with a friend and then rumors fly that there is a secret radio within the ghetto.

Director

Peter Kassovitz Photo
Peter Kassovitz

Top cast

Robin Williams Photo
Robin Williams as Jakob
Justus von Dohnányi Photo
Justus von Dohnányi as Preuss
Iván Darvas Photo
Iván Darvas as Hardtloff
Liev Schreiber Photo
Liev Schreiber as Mischa
720p.WEB 1080p.WEB
1.08 GB
1280*720
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
2 hr 0 min
Seeds 2
2 GB
1904*1072
English 2.0
NR
Subtitles us  
23.976 fps
2 hr 0 min
Seeds 6

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by yossarian100 7 / 10

Another solid performance by Robin Williams!

Don't be put off by the negative comments. If you like the characters Robin Williams creates, and you like unusual dramas, you'll like Jakob the Liar. The film wanted to be Roberto Benigni and Life is Beautiful but never seemed to have the courage to go there, even with Robin Williams in the lead, until the last few scenes of the movie. However, being another Life is Beautiful is asking an awful lot. Life is Beautiful is one of the great films of all time. Having said that, Jakob the Liar is fiendishly good, creatively done, and Robin Williams does a fine job, even when Hannah Taylor-Gordon, who plays Lina, wasn't stealing every scene she was in. So, settle down and give this little movie a try. If nothing else, it's another solid performance by Robin Williams.
Reviewed by roghache 8 / 10

Engrossing tale of hope kept alive in a wartime Jewish ghetto

Personally, I found very touching & heart wrenching this story of one man's efforts to lift spirits in a World War II Jewish ghetto in Poland. Many have compared it to Life is Beautiful, and there are some similarities. I can understand why some viewers take offense at any film which might seem to trivialize the Holocaust, but I found Life is Beautiful not disrespectful but deeply moving, and consider this particular tale to be a captivating depiction of one individual's unique attempt to keep hope alive in a desperate situation.The story revolves around a lonely Polish shopkeeper & widower, Jakob, who is confined to a Jewish ghetto in 1944. When summoned to ghetto headquarters for being out after curfew, he hears a radio report about Russian troop movements. To prevent a friend's suicide, he claims to have heard on his radio that the Russians are very close (within a few hundred kilometers) and will liberate the ghetto soon, causing rumours that Jakob has a secret radio. Instead of telling the truth, he tries to lift spirits and impart hope to the war weary & depressed ghetto inhabitants by maintaining the fiction of possessing this radio, and regularly disseminating uplifting fictional news bulletins about the Allies' progress. Meanwhile, Jakob is also hiding a young Jewish girl who escaped from a camp transport. The Germans hear reports of this forbidden radio and are seeking out the resistance operator of it.Robin Williams dominates this movie and is brilliant as usual in the endearing, sympathetic role of the kind Jakob who must try to balance getting out lots of hopeful (if fictitious) war reports to keep spirits up while at the same time avoid Nazi suspicion and detection.The movie portrays the despair of the ghetto's inhabitants and the grave injustice of their captive state. For example, Jewish people are prohibited from practicing medicine and a cardiologist is reduced to cleaning toilets, though does so with good humour, grace, and dignity. On the whole it is a very poignant tale, with any humour having a sad note to it. Jakob the Liar shows another tragic aspect of the Holocaust. Rather than the horrors of the concentration camps that are often the setting of such stories, here we see the injustice and despair of prolonged ghetto captivity.
Read more IMDb reviews

2 Comments

Be the first to leave a comment