It is an uncanny surprise of a movie in its ability to manipulate our expectations and feelings at once it is funny, but look away and the next moment it might be painfully truthful to our internal sorrows and feelings. But what we are expected to know is a little something about human nature, because in this department, the film is a triumph of expressing the very humane emotions such as guilt, jealousy, anger, and that crazy thing called love (although not in the romantic sense).

It is a father-son relationship dramedy in which both ends of the spectrum have devoted their lives to the Talmud, and we as an audience are not necessarily expected to know what that is. 'Footnote' has nothing to do with the Talmud department of Judaism yet at the same time, everything. Overall, there's a lot to like about this film, but where it fails, it fails big. The female characters lack any agency in the home or the profession, and while it's true that some sections of academe are miniature boys' clubs, the film doesn't seem to level its satire bullseye at the phallocentrism of the academy. The women are all either idiots or supporters, and when Eliezer's wife finds out the film's primary secret, her response is merely to support more.

What bothers me about the film are the ending, where I though we needed more clarity, and the film's misogyny. Not limited to satirizing the academy, the film is also about fathers and sons and the tough love fathers sometimes bone-headedly think their sons need. This also has the distinction of being one of the few films about academe that doesn't include a relationship between a teacher and a student, and for that it deserves applause. The satire of the cramped rooms and the highfalutin conversations in academic babble is sharp, biting, and accurate. There are moments in Footnote that resonate with any academic. A man who has followed in his father's footsteps in the study of the Talmud give up a prestigious prize for his father's benefit.

Foot note