I wanted this to be something it clearly could never live up to...."An entertaining film with great actors playing well written parts". So maybe it's the writing that let's it down or maybe it's the director that let it down but I have to say it's also some of the acting that lets it down. Interesting story line that in the right hands could have been something special. Simple things like Jeff Goldblum (whom I'm a fan of) speaking one moment with a German accent then a scene later without it is a tip off somethings not right here. Willem Dafoe as usual doesn't miss a beat and plays his part to a tee. In the end it not something you have to put on your list of things to see which is a shame because the story itself holds promise. It's frustrating watching movies that could have been, should have been and seeing them done like this. All that money and talent.

A masterpiece doomed to go unrecognized. Not too many people would like it or even sit through it, but in fact it's one of the best holocaust-related films ever made. Hateful reviews have commented on the fact that the film is disturbing and weird - or about the absurdity of a man surviving the holocaust by acting like a dog for the entertainment of a Nazi officer; is it any more absurd than the idea of people stamped with numbers or shoved into ovens? In the face of a horrifically absurd reality, insanity is often a valid option. Most WWII films center on the partisans, the heroes, the ones who kept their dignity and humanity in the face of genocide. But not everyone did. A major goal of Hitler's action was not just to destroy the Jews, but to dehumanize them first. And in many cases it worked. That's what this film is about - the loss of humanity, the feelings of guilt shared by the ones who survived at the expense of their own most basic human dignities, and it's small wonder that it's difficult for most to swallow.Paul Schrader made a fantastic job adapting Yoram Kanyuk's novel; reviews blaming him of 'emotional detachment' miss the point that this detachment is very intentional. The cold and distant feeling experienced while watching it is very different from the pathos of Schindler's List or Life Is Beautiful, and, rather than draw the viewer into the actual events, brings them face to face with their very madness and incomprehensibility. Jeff Goldblum portrays that feeling perfectly in what may be the most powerful performance of his career - reminding me, at times, of Roy Scheider in All That Jazz. Master-character actors Willem Dafoe and Derek Jacobi compliment him perfectly without stealing the show, and some of Israel's biggest stars join in to complete the ensemble cast. Bottome line - a terrific film, and instantly a favorite of mine, but I hesitate to recommend it to anyone for fear of being blamed for it later. Watch it at your own risk, with an open mind, and with an empty stomach.

There you have at least two great actors who really give what they can but there's no director.These two actors, Goldblum and Dafoe, are all alone in this insane brain sh... Nobody can explain them their purpose and so the audience is lost in this strange story which probably wants to make sense but there is no one who can press any sense and logic out of it.It probably could have been a movie that is strange and disturbing and which make you think about humor and hope but sadly it's a movie which is strange, embarrassing and stupid.There should have been a director, who is just as crazy as the story itself. I think Paul Schrader is a too boring person.

Another holocaust movie.How many times do we need to be told that Nazis=Bad, while Jews=Good? It's high time to stop living in the first half of the last century. Sure, bad things happened, but come on. How many different perspectives can there be? How many oddball points of view are there? A former circus entertainer who was spared the gas chamber and is now stuck in a mental institution specifically for holocaust survivors? Are you kidding me? Why not the story of a former Jewish mechanic who escaped the forced labor of evil Nazi kitchens where he peeled carrots for 21 hours a day, and who now makes cat food for a living in Guadalajara while moonlighting as a house painter? How much more random can it get? What does this story offer to history? In what way is humanity bettered by it? What lessons are learned? None. That's the answer. This is crap. Turn it off.