Footnote

Eliezer Shkolnik (Shlomo Bar Aba) is a stubborn, meticulous, misanthropic philologist who painstakingly studies the Jerusalem Talmud. He lives in the shadow of his son, Uriel (Lior Ashkenazi), a charismatic, ambitious pop-Talmud scholar at the same university. When Eliezer is mistakenly awarded a prize intended for Uriel, a son’s dedication to his father is put to the test.

Fittingly for a film about Talmudic study, Footnote starts with a premise that would give many rabbis fits: is it permissible to lie if your lie causes a good deed (in this case, restoring an old man’s dignity)? Despite this and other ethical imbroglios, Footnote often plays like a Coenesque quirky comedy. Poor Eliezer has all the social graces of Larry David while Uriel’s attempt to secretly award his prize to his father is thwarted at every turn. Though director Joseph Cedar’s use of music and visual cut-aways is bombastic at times, his dramatization of what is essentially a clerical error is surprisingly effective.

Occupying the gray space between comedy and tragedy, Footnote is earnest, endearing, and aside from its ambiguous ending, quite satisfying.

8/10