50
Flat and forced, Jakob the Liar aspires to be a poignant parable about the power of hope but instead uses one of humanity's greatest tragedies for trite melodrama.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
38
New York Daily News by Jack Mathews
An awkwardly executed, tedious and -- a near impossibility for a Holocaust movie -- emotionally uninvolving bore.
10
Just avoid this ghastly, insulting farrago at all costs.
38
New York Post by Jonathan Foreman
A particularly gross exploitation of the Holocaust for financial gain.
20
Los Angeles Times by Kenneth Turan
The latest in what feels like an endless string of movies ... in which the actor's parts have ruinously overdosed on sentimentality and schmaltz at the expense of humor and even sanity.
67
Entertainment Weekly by Lisa Schwarzbaum
Of course, there's still the Williams schmaltz factor.
40
Austin Chronicle by Marc Savlov
Feels sterile and chilly; the humor -- Yiddish and otherwise -- falls flat, and sadly so does the film.
50
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
I prefer "Life Is Beautiful," which is clearly a fantasy, to Jakob the Liar, which is just as contrived and manipulative but pretends it is not.
60
Washington Post by Stephen Hunter
But the best thing about Jakob the Liar is that it's not "Patch Adams at Auschwitz."
50
San Francisco Examiner by Wesley Morris
More altruistic would be if Williams stopped torturing us with weepy endearments so he could look for that complex clown who used to mug just for laughs.