The 3-Act Paradigm at Work: Jakob the Liar

written by Peter Kassovitz and Didier Decoin


I fell in love with the screenplay of Jakob the Liar when I reviewed it for Creative Screenwriting magazine. But something goes wrong in the film. The tone and style of the Jewish parable never quite comes into proper focus, and I think much of the problem lies with casting a star, Robin Williams, as the lead. The movie isn't as strong as the script.

Structural Analysis

  1. Hook (0-1 min.)
    • Jakob chases a sheet of newspaper caught by the wind through the WWII ghetto where he resides, "where it all started with a single sheet of newspaper."
  2. Complication (3-4 min.)
    • A young girl escapes from a train headed for an extermination camp and enters the ghetto. Jakob, chasing the newspaper, is reprimanded for missing curfew.
  3. Call to Action (9 min.)
    • Jakob finds the girl and brings her home with him, to hide her there.
  4. Act One Plot Point (26 min.)
    • While being reprimanded, Jakob heard a radio news broadcast. When he shares it, people think he himself secretly owns a radio. He becomes someone special in the ghetto.
  5. Midpoint Plot Point (62 min.)
    • The Liquidator arrives at the ghetto. Soon the Jews will be shipped to an extermination camp.
  6. Act Two Plot Point (89-93 min.)
    • The Germans search for the radio. Jakob confesses to friend that he never had one, and the girl overhears this. He has been lying to her about hope for the future.
  7. Climax and Resolution (103-111 min.)
    • The Germans torture Jakob but he doesn't give in. When he is led before his people, there to admit he had lied about the radio, he just laughs - and is shot. The Russians intercept the train and the people on the way to extermination are saved.

Notes

Jakob the Liar would not have been produced were it not for the backing of Robin Williams (the director told me this in a phone interview). How ironic, then, that I put the blame for the film's relative failure (it should be much more powerful than it is) on the casting of Williams as Jakob. Still, it's a moving story, if inconsistent in its style.


MODULE 4: SCREENWRIGHT: the craft of screenwriting

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