AN ILL-TIMED `JAKOB' SUFFERS.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

Talk about bad timing. ``Jakob the Liar,'' a sober comedy set during the Holocaust, finished filming nearly two years ago and has since sat on the shelf while its filmmakers watched the similarly themed ``Life Is Beautiful'' steal its thunder.

And while the two films share only a time period and, occasionally, a tone, the comparisons to Roberto Benigni's Oscar-winning film are inevitable and, unfortunately, rather damning. ``Jakob's'' backdrop, as imagined by Oscar-winning production designer Luciana Arrighi, is a horrible wonder to behold, but the awkward balance of the film's story only underscores the tremendous (and unlikely) accomplishment Benigni managed to pull off.

``Jakob'' began its life as a novel by an East German writer, Jurak Becker, and was made into a movie, ``Jakob Der Lugner'' 25 years ago. Hungarian-born director Peter Kassovitz obtained the rights to make it into an English-language film and has been working on doing just that, in between making feature films and television projects from his home base in Paris.

The movie's long gestation is evident in its remarkable visual conception, which frightfully evokes the setting, a Polish ghetto in the waning days of World War II. In this unnamed locale lives Jakob (Robin Williams), one of the thousands of Polish Jews living in the grim, Nazi-controlled slum. Relatively speaking, these survivors are lucky. Most of their neighbors and family (including Jakob's wife) have been shipped to the death camps. (Kassovitz vividly captures the fearful spectre of the trains throughout the film.)

One day, Jakob overhears a forbidden radio news bulletin announcing the Russian army is a mere 400 kilometers from his ghetto. Jakob excitedly shares the optimistic news with his despondent friends, and the friends soon extrapolate that Jakob must have a radio himself. Now, this is bad news for Jakob because if the Gestapo buys into the radio rumor, he will find himself taking a one-way trip to the gallows.

Jakob will have none of this. He lives by the creed ``the best thing to do is nothing.'' But as word spreads about his radio, hope - an almost-extinct commodity - returns to the ghetto. Thus, Jakob faces a dilemma, one compounded by his sudden custody of a 10-year-old refugee girl (Hannah Taylor Gordon), whose belief in the radio, and Jakob's steady stream of fictitious announcements, keeps her going.

Inherent in the movie's tightrope act is its mixture of melodrama and Holocaust hijinks, as well as Williams' presence, which has come, to some, to represent a low standard in shameless, lip-quivering mugging. ``Jakob's'' biggest problem, though, is the limitations imposed by its story. A capsule summary: Neighbors think Jakob has the radio, Jakob protests, neighbors persist, Jakob makes up comical bulletin. Repeat ad nauseam.

The subplot involving the little girl is another weak element, seemingly lifted straight out of the pages of ``The Diary of Anne Frank.'' Whenever the film is running low on pathos, Taylor Gordon and her saucer eyes are trotted down from the attic for some teary-eyed theatrics. It's the movie's one odious concession to blatant sentimentality, and it never comes close to priming the audience's tear ducts.

Williams, thankfully, delivers a restrained performance, aided by a fine ensemble cast that includes Alan Arkin, Bob Balaban, Liev Schreiber and Armin Mueller-Stahl. But these talented actors are no match for the ghastly ghetto. The gravity of the place and the period simply overpowers the lightweight story, leaving the audience mindful that the Holocaust stands as shaky ground upon which to build a feel-good concept.

The facts

The film: ``Jakob the Liar'' (PG-13; violence, disturbing images).

The stars: Robin Williams, Alan Arkin, Bob Balaban, Armin Mueller-Stahl.

Behind the scenes: Directed by Peter Kassovitz. Screenplay by Kassovitz and Didier Decoin. Released by Columbia Pictures.

Running time: One hour, 54 minutes.

Playing: Citywide.

Our rating: Two and one half stars

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PHOTO Robin Williams struggles to keep hope alive in a Nazi-occupied ghetto in ``Jakob the Liar.''