In May 1960, Mr. Polsky, an elderly and grumpy Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor, lives alone in the remote countryside of Argentina, spending his time gardening and playing chess. One day, shortly after the abduction of the Nazi criminal Adolf Eichmann by Mossad agents in Argentina, a mysterious old German man, Herzog, moves in next door. Polsky starts suspecting that the man is none other than Adolf Hitler himself, believing that Hitler faked his own suicide, changed his appearance, and fled to South America. Despite nobody believing him, Polsky is determined to prove his view, so he decides to get closer to Herzog in order to gather evidence. As time passes, Polsky discovers Herzog was not Hitler, but was one of his several body doubles who is trying to escape his past. They both reconcile their troubled pasts and become closer. Mossad agents who at first did not believe Polsky, show up and want to investigate. Polsky said he was now mistaken about Herzog, but the agents still want to interrogate Herzog. Polsky tells Herzog what he had done and Herzog thanks him and leaves to a new location to hide.
On the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, 44% of 25 critics' reviews are positive, with an average rating of 5.6/10.Metacritic, which uses a weighted average, assigned the film a score of 35 out of 100, based on four critics, indicating "generally unfavorable" reviews.
Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian wrote, "Kier, as ever, delivers a spoonful of black-comic menace and Hayman does an honest job. But there's something treacly about it."
Kevin Maher of The Times called the film "A nifty dramatic premise [that's] squandered with camp inconsequence".
