Footnote
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Metascore
82 out of 100

Universal acclaim - based on 27 Critics What's this?

User Score
5.9 out of 10

Mixed or average reviews- based on 16 Ratings

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  • Starring: Aliza Rosen, Lior Ashkenazi, Shlomo Bar-Aba
  • Summary: Eliezer and Uriel Shkolnik are both eccentric professors, who have dedicated their lives to their work in Talmudic Studies. The father, Eliezer, is a stubborn purist who fears the establishment and has never been recognized for his work. Meanwhile his son, Uriel, is an up-and-coming star in the field, who appears to feed on accolades, endlessly seeking recognition. 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 father's achievements finally recognized but, in a darkly funny twist, is forced to choose between the advancement of his own career and his father's. Will he sabotage his father's glory? (Sony Pictures Classics)
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Critic Reviews

Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 24 out of 27
  2. Mixed: 3 out of 27
  3. Negative: 0 out of 27
  1. The New Yorker
    Reviewed by: David Denby
    Apr 9, 2012
    100
    Nothing has exploded on the screen in recent years as violently as that mad quarrel in a tiny room - a room that is Israel itself. [16 April 2012, p.86]
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  2. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Amy Biancolli
    Mar 22, 2012
    100
    Israeli writer-director Joseph Cedar imbues his tale of academic maneuvering, misunderstanding and mystery with the zest of passion and the zing of intrigue, It's a vivacious film, having its little fun with suspense-flick conventions (including Amit Poznansky's bouncing score) that build to a climactic finish.
  3. Time Out New York
    Reviewed by: Joshua Rothkopf
    Mar 6, 2012
    80
    Cedar's idiosyncratically brilliant script also has a moral question at its heart: Is lying to spare someone's feelings ever justified? Surely the Talmud has a thing or two to say about that.
  4. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Todd McCarthy
    Mar 4, 2012
    60
    Jewish and academically inclined audiences worldwide will respond to numerous aspects of this unusual drama, although it is paradoxically both too broad and too esoteric for the general art house public.

See all 27 Critic Reviews

User Reviews

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Score distribution:
  1. Positive: 3 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 0 out of 3
  1. amboy
    10
    A brilliant film. Academic infighting provides the comedy, and father-son relationship provides the pathos. Not for anyone who does not know what "philology" is, but for audiences that lament the absence of intelligent films, this is a must.… Expand
  2. kcunning
    9
    This is an intense (& sometimes funny) story about scholarship and competition between a father & son researching & writing in the same academic field The academic tensions & jargon are enough to warrant a trip to the theater, but the complex family relationships give the film just the right amount of emotional content. Scholarship is shown as active, intellectual work, & I've never seen the painful act of writing & striving for just the right word depicted as well. The rivalries & betrayals that academia engenders are violent in their passionate intensity. I'm looking forward to more films by Joseph Cedar.… Expand
  3. TheDRauch
    9
    An impeccably written character study from Israel that is at times exhilarating, angry, passionate, funny, provocative, and is never less than absolutely absorbing. The writing, first of all, is due the most praise. It is so focused and attuned to the tone of the story that I instantly knew these two men. I was never left scratching my head at any point, lost in all of the talk of Talmud scholarship. The acting is amazingly restrained. The two actors who play father and son, competing in the same, very small field, are astounding. I feel as though they have lived these lives and completely understand the relationship they have and only through their eyes. I would only dismiss … Expand

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