“Footnote”

I saw “Footnote” last night, after weeks of waiting for it to come to a theater in my area. It’s an Israeli film that has earned multiple awards.

In many ways this was a very good movie. It’s the story of two arrogant, complex men — a father and son who work in the same tiny, ingrown branch of scholarship in Talmudic studies. The father is bitter, his work ignored by his peers. The son has gathered multiple honors for his work.

Then comes news of a prestigious award that starts a new chain of events rolling.

It’s a great premise. The conflict between father and son is well done and believable. The actors do a fine job of portraying the drama of this intense struggle in the characters’ lives. And the ending left me with questions that I enjoyed puzzling over in light of what I had learned of those two exceptional characters.

The movie as a whole is serious — “dour” was the word that occurred independently to my husband and me. The intense focus on the two main characters made the middle of the movie somewhat tedious. Still, “Footnote” is well worth seeing, as long as you don’t go into it with expectations as high as mine were.

Here’s more about the movie on rottentomatoes.com.