Jakob the Liar: Critic Reviews

MovieWeb: 0 reviews

30%

RottenTomatoes: 50 reviews

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Lisa Schwarzbaum Entertainment Weekly (Top Critic)

59

Peter Kassovitz establishes an effectively grim, cramped yet barren setting, making respectful use of locations in Poland and Budapest.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Mike Clark USA Today (Top Critic)

50

None of these reliable performers can put enough spin on their roles to conjure up more than the good will they've earned in previous and better movies.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Desson Thomson Washington Post (Top Critic)

If telling lies can save a people, he reasons, let the stories - and those fictional tanks - roll.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Jay Carr Boston Globe (Top Critic)

Jakob the Liar deserves a place alongside Life Is Beautiful and, yes, even Schindler's List.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Jeff Millar Houston Chronicle (Top Critic)

The film leans from the comedic to the near-mawkish.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Chris Vognar Dallas Morning News (Top Critic)

It's jolting that such a potentially life-affirming movie could be so lifeless.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Mark Caro Chicago Tribune (Top Critic)

50

I never lost awareness that I was watching actors speaking lines, not real people.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Susan Stark Detroit News (Top Critic)

50

Seems forced, calculating, self-conscious.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Jonathan Foreman New York Post (Top Critic)

50

Written with astonishing crudeness!
Full Review » 12 years ago
Sean Means Film.com (Top Critic)

Jakob the Liar can't embrace the tragedy of the Holocaust.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Robert Horton Film.com (Top Critic)

Sluggish!
Full Review » 12 years ago
James Berardinelli ReelViews (Top Critic)

50

Williams is seriously miscast, and his presence in the movie damages its credibility and effectiveness.
Full Review » 12 years ago
David Hunter Hollywood Reporter (Top Critic)

Robin Williams in his best film since Good Will Hunting!
Full Review » 12 years ago
Kenneth Turan Los Angeles Times (Top Critic)

20

Jakob the Liar is so forced that only the interest of a star of Williams' magnitude could have gotten it made.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Michael Dequina TheMovieReport.com

50

So sternly manipulative that it becomes a chore to watch.
Full Review » 3 years ago
Rob Gonsalves eFilmCritic.com

60

Jakob the Liar isn't nearly as intolerable as you might expect of a Holocaust fable starring Robin Williams.
Full Review » 5 years ago
Frederic and Mary Ann Brussat Spirituality and Practice

A sober drama about hope as a postive spiritual force.
Full Review » 10 years ago
Elias Savada Nitrate Online

50

As noble an effort this is, released a week after Yom Kippur, the Jewish day of atonement, it will only receive second-class accommodations from the movie-going public.
Full Review » 12 years ago
William Arnold Seattle Post-Intelligencer

42

Williams' self-conscious and rather bland performance never comes close to bringing his character to life.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Chuck Rudolph Matinee Magazine

9

The movie does absolutely no justice to its subject matter.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Joe Leydon MSNBC

Williams appears to be riffing for another 'Comic Relief' benefit.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Karen Hershenson Contra Costa Times

Plays dangerously close to Hogan's Heroes goes to Auschwitz.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Ken Fox TV Guide's Movie Guide

40

Awkward!
Full Review » 12 years ago
Harry Haun Film Journal International

Ultimately appreciated more for what it doesn't do than what it does.
Full Review » 12 years ago
Curtis Morgan Miami Herald

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.
Full Review » 12 years ago