FOOTNOTE is the tale of a great rivalry between a her and son,
two eccentric professors, who both dedicated their lives to work
in Talmudic Studies. The her, Eliezer, is a stubborn purist
who fears the establishment and has never been recognized for his
work. His son, Uriel, is an up-and-coming star in the field, who
appears to feed on accolades, endlessly seeking re.Then
one day, the tables turn. When Eliezer learns that he is to be
awarded the Israel Prize, the most valuable honor for scholarship
in the country, his vanity and desperate need for validation are
exposed. His son, Uriel, is thrilled to see his her's
achievements finally recognized but, in a darkly funny twist, is
forced to choose between the advancement of his own career and
his her's. Will he sabotage his her's glory?
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Go figure that a movie about scholarly research can
pack such a wallop of dramedic pizzazz and entertaining formal
flourish in its examination of the arcana of academe and the
mysteries of familial competition. Though it's packed with
subtextual meaning on any number of levels, the title of this
Israeli import and 2011 foreign language O nominee is also a
reference to the only cl to fame of Eliezer Shkolnik (Shlomo
Bar Aba). The cranky, crotchety, and exceptionally old-fashioned
professor of Talmudic studies at Jerusalem's Hebrew University
has all but perished after not having published despite his
relentless examination of obscure texts as a fanatical
philologist. His lifelong quest into pure research was usurped by
a jealous colleague years earlier, and Eliezer has only one
reference to his name: a footnote in the work of a long-dead
academic idol. Yet he clings to his old-school approach to
intellectual investigation with greater gusto as his final years
tick by. His rival in scholarly pursuit is his son Uriel (Lior
Ashkenazi), an equally serious man who also teaches at the
university, but whose flashy, more populous approach to Talmudic
study has earned him wide accl. The fact that he's authored so
many well-liked books is confirmation to Eliezer that his son's
methods and expertise are the antithesis of everything to which
the elder Shkolnik has devoted himself for decades. When a mix-up
occurs over which Shkolnik is to be awarded a prestigious
academic prize, her and son exchange more cerebral bites,
provoking barks of laughter from the audience as the mistake
complicates itself so unpredictably. Writer-director Joseph Cedar
navigates the sea of intellectual and family discord with a
genuinely droll touch that's as smart and stinging as it is
funny. Using an array of zingy stylistic splashes like
time-shifting flashbacks, disarming compositions, fleeting
fantasy sequences, lively and often bombastic musical cues,
eye-grabbing graphical elements, and clever visual digressions
that come across as their own footnotes, Cedar lets loose lots of
surprises that reveal the characters' complex inner conflicts.
The best scene plays out in a miniscule office crowded with books
and way more people than the space was meant to hold, where
controversy is exposed and the intrigue behind motivations
develops in a combination of near-slapstick comedy and palpable
suspense. The acting is terrific, from the antihero dynamic
between her and son to sideline players in the ensemble cast
that includes wives, children, collaborators, and the security
personnel who are a constant presence everywhere anyone goes.
Footnote is a satire of intellect and domestic friction that cuts
deep with dramatic tension and the in of its often magical
realist sense of high farce. --Ted Fry