{"product_id":"jakob-the-liar","title":"Jakob the Liar","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Robin Williams\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBrand:\u003c\/b\u003e Sony Pictures Home Entertainment - Mill Creek\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Closed-captioned\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eRelease Date:\u003c\/b\u003e 21-03-2000\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eDetails:\u003c\/b\u003e Product Description\n\n\nIn Nazi-occupied Poland during World War II, poor Jewish cafe owner Jakob Heym (Oscar(r)-winner RobinWilliams Best Supporting Actor, 1997, Good Will Hunting) accidentally overhears a forbidden radio news bulletin signaling Soviet military success against German forces. To combat the overwhelming depression and suicide that pervades the ghetto, Jakob invents fictitious news bulletins about Allied advances against the Nazis. These lies keep hope and humor alive among the ghetto inhabitants, spirits are lifted, hearts are refreshed, and optimism is reborn. The Germans learn of the mythical radio and begin a search for the resistance hero who dares operate it.\n\n\nAmazon.ca\n\n\nRoberto Benigni's\nLife Is Beautiful aside, milking the Holocaust for laughs is a dangerous game. Even the blackest, most therapeutic humor turns queasy in the shadow of such monstrous evil; it's like dancing on a mass grave. So\nJakob the Liar's got a hard road to hoe--its eponymous schlemiel plays out his semi-farcical adventures in the mean streets of the Warsaw Ghetto circa 1944. The skies are always leaden over Jakob's hometown, reflecting the comic climate that pervades this mostly unfortunate adaptation of Jurek Becker's\nautobiographical book (first filmed in 1975).\n Jakob Heym (Robin Williams in overbearingly earnest mode) gets tangled in a string of self-perpetuating lies about a hidden radio, supposedly broadcasting news that the victorious Red Army is nearing. His desperate attempts to convince a clutch of insistently idiosyncratic friends (clichés to a man: Liev Schreiber, Bob Balaban, Michael Jeter, Alan Arkin) and obligatory Nazi bad guys that the radio doesn't exist are complicated by the fact that he's stashed a fugitive kid (a dead ringer--sorry!--for Anne Frank) in his attic--and by abundant evidence that lies are the best medicine for the ghetto's skyrocketing suicide rate. Copious unfunny misunderstandings and pratfalls eventuate in this Holocaust rendition of Fiddler on the Roof (you expect Williams to break into song: \"If I were a funny man....\"). Ultimately, Jakob the Liar loses its way for good in some very ugly violence and a rather nasty final twist: the film's ending might just be rubbing our noses in another feel-good lie. --Kathleen Murphy\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eUPC:\u003c\/b\u003e 043396028449\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eEAN:\u003c\/b\u003e 0043396028449\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguages:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding:\u003c\/b\u003e DVD\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eItem Condition:\u003c\/b\u003e UsedVeryGood\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ID Shop.ca","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45942935420962,"sku":"M3-WN3D-KHOA","price":9.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0889\/9428\/3554\/files\/51GQ9H0ZFTL.jpg?v=1783606229","url":"https:\/\/kastor.club\/products\/jakob-the-liar","provider":"Kastor","version":"1.0","type":"link"}