Jacob The Liar (1999) *

Directed by Peter Kassovitz. With Robin Williams, Alan Arkin and Nina Siemiaszko. This lame comedy about the Holocaust is an inevitable, but unfortunate consequence of the world-wide success of Life Is Beautiful. Williams plays a Jewish man in German-occupied Poland who tries to cheer up his friends by inventing stories of Soviet troop advances. The humor seems forced, as the filmmakers are clearly afraid to push the enveloppe, settling for safe and familiar jokes (like that perennial anecdote about Hitler dying on a Jewish holiday).