A Serious Man

I have to give it to the Coen brothers, they always bring something new to the table, while still keeping it familiar.

Larry Gopnik has problems, a lot of them. His wife wants a divorce, his job is on the line, he's got South Korean people wanting to sue, or bribe him...and on and on it goes. As he tries to look for answers he keeps coming up empty handed without anyone able to give him a straight or acceptable answer. When it comes to the plot there isn't to much more I can say, it really is just a series of bad things happening to Larry over and over again, with seemingly no end in sight.

In that way this is a very Jewish film, there are many references to that within the film, besides it having almost all its characters as Jews there is also the obvious correlation between Larry and Job of the Bible. Larry is essentially a good man, so why is he punished so? The same goes for Job, he does nothing to anger God, he just happened to be favored, and when Lucifer called that to God's attention, that perhaps he wouldn't be so loving of God if he took it all away. The difference comes about towards the end, Job breaks down and curses God, Larry on the other hand never actually turns to God, I don't think he even believes in God.

Larry is a professor at a near by University, and he teaches math, the kind of stuff that goes right over my head, he thinks the world can all be explained with math. So when these things happen to him with no answer to "why?" he is dumbstruck. When counseled by the Rabbis at his temple he gets the Jewish answer from years of wisdom, "there is no answer to your questions, you just have to go with it" This film asks the questions that Jews must ask themselves always and have been since they were first persecuted which was, well pretty much right away, and has been non stop through today.

The Rabbis are willing to accept that there is a way of life of the Jew, and that part of that involves being tormented and torn down, its something that makes us what we are. Even when given a sign by presumably God, there might not be a reason for it that we can ever understand.

Roger Deakins shot this, like he has done with the Coen brothers for many of their films and it reads as such. There is a certain simplicity to the way he shoots things, and by that I mean he makes it look simple and easy, but it is anything but. He is one of the current masters and shows it in his work always. Something I loved about this film was the parallels they make aside from the Biblical ones. Such as when two characters are driving their cars, at the same time, across town and we continue to cut between the two, one we see gets into an accident, but everyone is fine, while the other car seems to get to its destination without a problem, we only find out later that they didn't get there, they were also in a crash and died. Funny way to show things happening and to essentially trick the audience over and over again.

There are also several dreams that take place in the film that trick you for a moment. All I could do after finding out it was a dream was smile and laugh a little, that's what the Coen's do best, make me chuckle uncomfortably a little while deep down I'm laughing hard. Lots of people wont see this as a comedy, much like "Fargo" is a comedy, even if that evades most people.

The way this ends was one of the best I've seen in a while, or should I say non-ending. You can basically figure out the rest for yourself, even if you'd prefer the filmmakers to finish it for you. The film like the story of it leaves you with no answers just like it began, merely questions. They purposely don't give you answers because like the question of "Why?" for the Jews, there is no answer that will ever suffice. Why does this have to happen to us? It just does, the story never ends, it just keeps going, there is no happy ending. Dark, yes, a comedy...yes, and a funny one at that. Its hard for me to recommend it though, its not for most people, it will feel like you wasted an hour and forty minutes if you are the kind of person who doesn't like the Coen brothers.

For someone who gets them and likes them this is a good addition to their film repertoire. 7/10 stars. It could have gotten more stars if I had been given an answer, sorry, but I wanted one.

Starring: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed, Sari Lennick, Aaron Wolff

Directors: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen