Jakob the Liar (1999) 2 stars out of 4. Starring Robin Williams, Alan Arkin, Bob Balaban, Michael Jeter, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Liev Schreiber
"Jakob the Liar" unfolds like a Sholemcq Aleichem story: Through a misunderstanding, an unimportant little man suddenly gains stature and influence that he neither wants nor deserves.
However, instead of some turn-of-the-century shtetl in Russia, this story is set in an unnamed Polish city's Jewish ghetto during World War II.
Jakob (Robin Williams), like everyone else in the ghetto, lives with death on a daily basis. People are shot at random, put into cattle cars or commit suicide.
Jakob only wants to stay alive and away from the Nazis.
One night, though, near curfew he is accused of trying to escape from the ghetto and is sent to the office of a Gestapo official.
There he hears a radio broadcast and sees a map that pinpoints Russian troop deployments, indicating they are only 400 miles away and closing fast.
This information bolsters his spirits, and when he is allowed to return to the ghetto, he determines to spread the information among his friends, thus giving them hope.
But, like the story that is passed around the campfire, changing from person to person until it is barely unrecognizable, the other ghetto residents come to believe that Jakob has a hidden radio and begin pestering him for more news on the war's progress.
Despite his various protestations, no one believes Jakob when he insists he has no radio. Situations begin to escalate in comic and tragic turns. People begin treating him with respect and he becomes a reluctant leader in the community.
Jakob seems like a role created for Williams. He is funny, yet subdued as the circumstances demand. His asides and mutterings to himself are pure Williams, and that is the flaw in his performance. He doesn't come across as a poor, simple, scared former potato vendor, but as a big-time actor doing a star turn with an affected Eastern European accent.
The movie, directed by Peter Kassovitz with a screenplay by Kassovitz and Didier Decoin, struggles to blend comedy with the horror of the Holocaust, while also trying to keep an reverent tone concerning that nightmare.
They succeed partially. Kassovitz is able to convey the casualness of the brutality and death the Jews were forced to endure. It seems so impersonal that it lacks any emotional resonance or shock.
Despite a strong cast, including Alan Arkin, Bob Balaban, Michael Jeter, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Liev Schreiber, Jakob the Liar feels cold and impersonal. The performances by all concerned are good, but a spark, something to ignite the audience's emotions, is lacking.
"Jakob the Liar," unlike "Life Is Beautiful" - to which it will be compared mostly - and "Schindler's List," fails to touch our hearts and souls concerning the plight of these unfortunate people persecuted simply because they are Jewish.
Like the film's setting, "Jakob the Liar" is cold and gray. It neither inspires nor shocks. It just sits like a cold, day-old potato pancake.
Bob Bloom is the film critic at the Journal and Courier. He can be reached by e-mail at bloom@journal-courier.com or at cbloom@iquest.net
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