Entertainment

FUGITIVE PIECES

AS plodding and pretentious as it is ambitious, Jeremy Podeswa’s “Fugitive Pieces” is a Holocaust drama that spans decades as it moves from World War II Poland to Greece and, finally, to Canada.

A somewhat miscast Stephen Dillane is Jakob, a Canadian writer obsessed with the slaughter of his family by the Nazis. His younger self (played by Robbie Kay) escaped from the country with the help of a Greek archeologist (Rade Serbedzija).

This obsession drives Jakob’s not-unsympathetic wife (Rosamund Pike) to distraction, and Jakob to Greece – where he finds redemption with the help of a young scholar (Ayelet Zurer). But despite a more upbeat ending than when it opened last fall’s Toronto International Film Festival, “Fugitive Pieces,” however well-meaning, is still pretty much an emotionally distanced slog.

In English, Greek, Yiddish and German, with English subtitles. Running time: 104 minutes. Rated R (sexuality). At the Lincoln Plaza, Broadway and 63rd Street.