Perhaps I am too narrow minded to appreciate Coen Brothers films. Keeping that in mind, A Serious Man (released in October 2009) was, to me, an endless movie with no purpose in this world. I am no movie maker, but I do understand what is entertaining to me and this movie was far from entertaining. On the other hand, my artsy-fartsy husband loved this movie and appreciated its artistic philosophy.
This movie is a story of an ordinary man, Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) who is living in a universe of catastrophic events. He has just been informed from his wife, Judith (Sari Lennick), that she is leaving him for his obnoxious family friend, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed). Larry’s odd ball brother, Arthur (Richard Kind), sleeps on the couch and is becoming a burden to the family. Larry’s children Danny (Aaron Wolff) is a trouble making, pot smoking kid, who is close to his Bar Mitzvah while is daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus) steals money from his wallet to save for a nose job. The bad luck isn’t over yet. Larry receives a money bribe from one of his physic students to raise his grade while at the same time threatening to sue him for defamation. To top it off, the tenure board is receiving anonymous complaint letters against Larry, in hopes of sabotaging his chances for tenure. Plus, Larry’s hot neighbor torments him by laying out nude and showing him the glories of pot smoking.
Struggling for survival, Larry attempts to visit three different rabbis for advice. Comically, they are of no help to him and the storm builds bigger and bigger. Larry’s greatest hope is that he become a mensch–a serious man.
What a stupid plot you say? I agree. A Serious Man is not your typical rise and fall predictable movie. I suppose for that reason alone, I can appreciate it. This movie had no beginning, middle, or end. It was a story of a man’s bad luck and the pressures of stress building more and more. At least, that’s what I got out of it. I am sure the Coens had a deeper meaning for the film that I am too shallow-minded to understand, but that does not change my attitude about the movie. I understand the Coen Brothers are supposed to be these great writers and their minds are brilliant. Sorry. A Serious Man barely gets one star from me and unless you are fans of the Coens or you can appreciate an artsy film, I would not recommend seeing this one.
I LOVED this movie. I would give it 4 stars. The film is very much about Jewish culture and religion in general, drawing parallels between life and religion and begs the question “Is there a God or is it all coincidence?”
This is why you are the creative one out of the both of us. I don’t want parallels…..I want entertainment.
i didn’t love the movie but i thought it was quite entertaining. especially in these times, it’s interesting to see someone relaly come close to havng a nervous breakdown after suffering through a series of unofrtnate events.
Thanks for the comment. You and many people seemed to like this one!
added to my queue
You’re a fool.
bryan and i just watched this film too! i liked it, but i tend to like the coen bros…i would give it 3 stars, because it’s not something i would want to watch again, but i am glad i saw it.
it’s up for best picture and best original screenplay at the oscars next sunday, too!
Can’t wait for the Oscars. Unfortunately, don’t think this one will win any. Like I said, Coen Bros are for some people (mostly the smart creative ones like you) but not for everyone.
I wouldn’t go to see this kind of film for entertainment… but I really enjoyed it as a Jew, and as a film maker I enjoyed its play on how hopeless it was trying to root for the – cause in the end nothing really seems to work out anyway!