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GERMAN | 95 MINUTES | KENDALL SQUARE Dani Levy’s broad and complex comedy takes on multiple issues, including the divide between secular and orthodox, freedom and respectability, East and West. Don’t be put off by the crude gay joke at the beginning, or by your initial impression that the title hero is a pig. Former East Berlin TV star Jacky Zucker is a rogue and a survivor who saw his fortunes fall along with the Wall. He’s since tried to make ends meet with an "East German Nostalgia" bar (in fact a glorified bordello) and by being a pool hustler. It’s not enough; he has to come up with a fortune by Monday or go to jail. But fortune smiles on him, twice: there’s a pool tournament with a big purse in town, and when his mother dies, he can nail down his inheritance by sitting shivah with his hated straitlaced brother. The catch, of course, is that he has to do both at the same time. Can Levy get a movie off the ground with such an overloaded premise and be convincing and funny and even draw a tear or two? For answers, I recommend you go for Zucker.
BY PETER KEOUGH
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