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Jakob the Liar
Metascore
40 out of 100

Mixed or average reviews - based on 25 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 5 out of 25
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 25
  3. Negative: 6 out of 25
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  1. Variety
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    90
    A markedly better picture than Roberto Benigni's far more sentimental Oscar collector.
  2. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Jay Carr
    75
    Deserves a place alongside "Life Is Beautiful" and, yes, even "Schindler's List."
  3. Entertainment Weekly
    Reviewed by: Lisa Schwarzbaum
    67
    Of course, there's still the Williams schmaltz factor.
  4. Portland Oregonian
    Reviewed by: Diana Abu-Jaber
    67
    Soggy.
  5. Baltimore Sun
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    63
    As earnest as the performances are, something seems to be lost in the translation.
  6. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Stephen Hunter
    60
    But the best thing about Jakob the Liar is that it's not "Patch Adams at Auschwitz."
  7. Chicago Sun-Times
    Reviewed by: Roger Ebert
    50
    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.
  8. Chicago Tribune
    Reviewed by: Marc Caro
    50
    I never lost awareness that I was watching actors speaking lines, not real people --a problem I didn't have in the more unreal "Life Is Beautiful."
  9. Miami Herald
    Reviewed by: Curtis Morgan
    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.
  10. San Francisco Examiner
    Reviewed by: Wesley Morris
    50
    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.
  11. USA Today
    Reviewed by: Mike Clark
    50
    What it isn't ... is a particularly compelling contribution to the impressive and by now enormous collection of Holocaust movies.
  12. Seattle Post-Intelligencer
    Reviewed by: William Arnold
    50
    Williams' self-conscious and rather bland performance never comes close to bringing his character to life.
  13. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Sean Means
    50
    The audience is ready for an unhappy ending -- and Hollywood should have the courage to provide it.
  14. Chicago Reader
    Reviewed by: Lisa Alspector
    50
    Pales in comparison to the controversial "Life Is Beautiful"--a more provocative fiction, if only because it's even less realist.
  15. TV Guide
    Reviewed by: Ken Fox
    40
    It begins with a stale Hitler joke and ends with a miraculous quick-save that demonstrates just how poorly the Holocaust is served by the life-affirming requirements of Hollywood features.
  16. Austin Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Marc Savlov
    40
    Feels sterile and chilly; the humor -- Yiddish and otherwise -- falls flat, and sadly so does the film.
  17. Dallas Observer
    Reviewed by: Jean Oppenheimer
    40
    The supposedly funny quips and shrugs that fill Jakob the Liar are tepid at best and embarrassingly shticky at worst. Some are simply in bad taste.
  18. Film.com
    Reviewed by: Robert Horton
    40
    Even on its own terms, it stays sluggish.
  19. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Janet Maslin
    40
    Alternates between bumbling group antics and strained poignancy...anticipates all laughter and emotion in ways that make it its own worst enemy.
  20. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Jack Mathews
    38
    An awkwardly executed, tedious and -- a near impossibility for a Holocaust movie -- emotionally uninvolving bore.
  21. New York Post
    Reviewed by: Jonathan Foreman
    38
    A particularly gross exploitation of the Holocaust for financial gain.
  22. Rolling Stone
    Reviewed by: Peter Travers
    30
    The self-congratulatory histrionics of Williams, lower lip trembling as he triumphs over torture in the name of the human spirit, represents a trend in Hollywood to make accessible melodrama out of unspeakable tragedy.
    All this critic's reviews
  23. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    20
    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.
  24. Mr. Showbiz
    Reviewed by: Michael Atkinson
    19
    A trial of cliche, strained optimism, and dire quasi-comedy.
  25. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: John Patterson
    10
    Just avoid this ghastly, insulting farrago at all costs.
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