Robin Williams plays a storekeeper and 'part-time Jew' in 1944 Poland who invents uplifting radio announcements to get his bedraggled comrades through tough times during the Nazi regime; soon, though, his friends want to see the radio and hear the broadcasts for themselves. From Jurek Becker's novel, previously filmed in Germany in 1975, but lacking style and emotional punch. The wayward Jewish accents are almost cartoonish in their over-exaggeration, and casting Williams as Jakob was a gambit that just doesn't work (his performance plays like a medley of the actor's other serious turns on film). Although a big-budget production, the picture has a constricted, set-bound feel, and offers viewers little but maudlin sentiments and cheap lines of self-deprecating humor. Apparently heartfelt intentions can't keep this from misfiring. *1/2 from ****

First, I want to say that Robin Williams is one of my favorite actors, and one of the funniest people alive today. Which makes it all the more disappointing that he doesn't get to do anything in "Jakob the Liar". A lot of people compared this movie to "Life is Beautiful"; if anything, it just ripped that one off. This story of a Jewish man in Nazi-occupied Poland trying to give everyone hope just can't create a believable presence. It's not terrible, just nothing creative. And I'm probably not the only person who thinks that Williams's career hit an all time low in 1999, as he starred in this and the apparently dreadful "Bicentennial Man". Fortunately, he's made a comeback since then (I expect a cool performance from him in "Night at the Museum").

Also starring Alan Arkin, Bob Balaban, Michael Jeter, Armin Mueller-Stahl and Liev Schreiber; they probably and Williams want to downplay this movie when describing their careers.

It's 1944 Poland in a Jewish ghetto. Jakob (Robin Williams) is a pancake café owner. He gets commanded to the ghetto commander's office. He overhears broadcast from German radio about fighting close by. Later, he has to tell his boxer friend Mischa (Liev Schreiber). Only Mischa foolishly tells everybody that Jakob has a radio. Meanwhile, a girl Lina (Hannah Taylor Gordon) escapes from one of the trains to concentration camp.

This is very much a made up story. The problem is that it's put in the all too real ghetto. It's a conflict that never gets better, and only gets worst with the ending. There is always this fakeness permeating throughout the movie. Yet the subject is so realistically portrayed.

It is obvious that Robin Williams is trying his best. But maybe he's not the best person to play the role. He doesn't have the moral stability that the character desperately needs before his lying begins. We need a real boyscout. Liev Schreiber does what he needs for his character. However I wish he had an emotional breakdown to make him more 3 dimensional. Overall, it's a good effort, but it has too many awkwardness.