Four Stars
You know, if I wasn’t a film critic, I might be a professor.
I know a lot about literature, as well as film. I can go to grad school and
become a doctor of literature. I can see professors trying to top each other.
You know, who has more degrees? It’s like in “The Big Bang Theory”, where they
pile on Howard for not having a doctorate like the rest of his professor
friends. I can see some truth in that. In the comedy/drama, “Footnote”, the
Israeli film that was the nominee for best foreign picture at the Oscars this
year, it's about a father and son who both happen to be professors. Through the
use of some creative graphics, we learn about them both. Eliezer (Shlomo
Bra-Aba) is a bitter old man, who had been passed up for the Israel Prize, a prize given to scholars, time
and time again. He’s clearly a man who can’t look at the big picture. The fact
he has a successful son who followed in his footsteps and a marriage that has
lasted, he doesn’t seem to care about. All he cares about is the fact that his
research is the best, and he is better than everyone. That includes his son,
Uriel (Lior Ashenazi). Uriel isn’t a bad guy. He has his own wife and kids.
However, he seems to lack backbone, and doesn’t confront people well including
his work obsessed father. The trouble starts when Eliezer is told he will get
the Israel prize. This is a confirmation of his life’s work. However, Uriel is
soon informed that there was a mix up. He is supposed to get the prize. Not his
father.
Instead
of using this as revenge against his jerk of a dad, he decides that he will
give up his award for his father. That’s a good son, if I ever heard of one. All
this leads to ethical dilemmas, and the writer/ director Joseph Cedar does an
excellent job of showing this. They clash, often. However, these two professors
are steeped deep in their research as they try to dissect the Talmud. The
Talmud is a Jewish text, and many scholars have tried to make sense of it.
Eliezer has spent his entire career trying to make sense of it. We see many
scenes in this film of rooms with books; close up of pages and piles of papers.
I can think of when I was in college, and I would go to the professor’s office
to discuss the ‘C’ on the paper I handed in and being interested in the books
on their shelves and the papers piled on their desk. This film gives a really
good feel of professor’s life.
I
suppose this may sound boring to a mass audience. Who wants to see two
professors fight over who is going to win an award for research concerning a
really old piece of text? However, this isn’t about a fight. This is about a
son who tries to do the right thing for his father, and really gets nothing in
return. Again, who wants to see that?
That being said, this film is about relationships (something I needed
after sitting through “The Hunger Games”). It’s about relationships between
father and son, relationships between work and personal life and the
relationship between researchers. The music is also very good throughout his
movie, and sets the mood.
However,
the film does come down on the side of how the relationship with your son is
more important than you’re most important work, and when the end of the film
comes, I think Eliezer starts to realize that. All you have to do is look at
the expression on his face. I liked this film because it shows that when people
are really wrapped up in their work, it can overtake another important aspect
of their life. That important aspect is the personal part of your life. Eliezer
is so wrapped up in being the smartest and the best; it’s at the expense of his
son. Uriel talks about what a great teacher Eliezer is, but its Eliezer who
needs to be taught something that you can’t find in a textbook.
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