The Liar
Sebastian Schuhmann is a little man with a big problem. His wife deserted him, as well as their daughter, several years earlier. Since that traumatic event, he has attempted to create a good home for…
The Liar
Sebastian Schuhmann is a little man with a big problem. His wife deserted him, as well as their daughter, several years earlier. Since that traumatic event, he has attempted to create a good home for his daughter, and deal with the present in the best way he knows how. The lies began innocently, when he simply wanted to explain his wife's disappearance to his daughter, Nicky, by saying she died. So he took her to a cemetery, and followed the procession of a funerary burial at the very end, asserting to his daughter that the closest relatives always walk at the end. One of the consequences of his wife's desertion is that he can no longer be a traveling salesman for the porcelain company he's represented. Now he works for them as a bookkeeper, making a fraction of the salary he used to make. So he is lonely, and he is becoming poorer, and he has started drinking in order to cope with the pain of his existence. Since life is miserable for him, he begins to spin a web of lies for his little girl, in order to make her life more bearable and pleasant. When a rich schoolmate brags about the car and chauffeur that picks her up, little Nicky says her father has a car, too. The little girl calls her a liar. Nicky tells her father, who immediately takes steps to make sure his daughter is not going to be thought of as a liar! He begs for the company car, which turns out not to be a dignified vehicle, so he tries to rent a car, but doesn't have the required down payment, and ultimately, he pretends to buy a car, just to steal it for a short period to pick Nicky up from school. There are other lies: Nicky's father is a world diplomat; he is an astronaut; he was a foreign spy and barely got away with his life; he's a financier; and he's a world-class boxer. Each of these stories come just at a time when Nicky needs some reassurance that a mother would have given in another way. She is happy and satisfied. Her father has to start selling the family furniture to feed his little girl -- who remains blissfully unaware of their condition. A chance meeting at the automat with another woman, during which he steals her apple cake, leads to a romantic relationship with Sebastian. It does not take Annemarie long to figure out what's going on, and she scolds Sebastian for the world he's painting for his daughter. Since he has lost his job with his employer over the car incident, she gives him the opportunity to use his remarkable selling skills in the department store where she works. Sebastian, however, feels he needs some liquid courage to face a new employer, and arrives at his interview in a drunken condition. His drinking has not eluded the neighbors, one of whom is particularly nosy and judmental. This pinched woman reports him to the authorities, claiming, among other things, that he leaves Nicky in the park all day while he works -- which is true -- and that he is not fit to be a parent. The last part of the film is a culmination of events, some brought into focus by Annemarie, some by pure chance, that lead to a satisfactory ending.
The Liar
Comedy,Drama
Film Details
Sebastian Schuhmann is a little man with a big problem. His wife deserted him, as well as their daughter, several years earlier. Since that traumatic event, he has attempted to create a good home for his daughter, and deal with the present in the best way he knows how.
The lies began innocently, when he simply wanted to explain his wife's disappearance to his daughter, Nicky, by saying she died. So he took her to a cemetery, and followed the procession of a funerary burial at the very end, asserting to his daughter that the closest relatives always walk at the end. One of the consequences of his wife's desertion is that he can no longer be a traveling salesman for the porcelain company he's represented.
Now he works for them as a bookkeeper, making a fraction of the salary he used to make. So he is lonely, and he is becoming poorer, and he has started drinking in order to cope with the pain of his existence. Since life is miserable for him, he begins to spin a web of lies for his little girl, in order to make her life more bearable and pleasant.
When a rich schoolmate brags about the car and chauffeur that picks her up, little Nicky says her father has a car, too. The little girl calls her a liar. Nicky tells her father, who immediately takes steps to make sure his daughter is not going to be thought of as a liar! He begs for the company car, which turns out not to be a dignified vehicle, so he tries to rent a car, but doesn't have the required down payment, and ultimately, he pretends to buy a car, just to steal it for a short period to pick Nicky up from school.
There are other lies: Nicky's father is a world diplomat; he is an astronaut; he was a foreign spy and barely got away with his life; he's a financier; and he's a world-class boxer. Each of these stories come just at a time when Nicky needs some reassurance that a mother would have given in another way. She is happy and satisfied.
Her father has to start selling the family furniture to feed his little girl -- who remains blissfully unaware of their condition. A chance meeting at the automat with another woman, during which he steals her apple cake, leads to a romantic relationship with Sebastian. It does not take Annemarie long to figure out what's going on, and she scolds Sebastian for the world he's painting for his daughter.
Since he has lost his job with his employer over the car incident, she gives him the opportunity to use his remarkable selling skills in the department store where she works. Sebastian, however, feels he needs some liquid courage to face a new employer, and arrives at his interview in a drunken condition. His drinking has not eluded the neighbors, one of whom is particularly nosy and judmental.
This pinched woman reports him to the authorities, claiming, among other things, that he leaves Nicky in the park all day while he works -- which is true -- and that he is not fit to be a parent. The last part of the film is a culmination of events, some brought into focus by Annemarie, some by pure chance, that lead to a satisfactory ending..