Academy Award winning filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen bring their famously wicked sense of humor to this every day tale about a moral man who sees the world inexplicably turn against him in this darkest of comedies.
A Serious Man is the story of Larry Nidus, a good man, he is a loving husband, a committed father, and a dedicated professor who always does the fair and just thing in the face of daily temptations. But one day, everything starts to go wrong. His wife leaves him for reasons she can’t explain, and her smug new lover manages to convince Larry that he should be the one to move out of the house and into a cheap motel – all for the children’s benefit, of course. Then Larry’s career is put into jeopardy by a series of anonymous letters falsely accusing him of unnamed treacheries. And when his wife’s new partner dies in a car accident, she insists that he should foot the bill for the funeral! Now the cash strapped Larry finds himself paying to bury a man he hates, bailing his gambling addicted brother out of jail, and desperately trying to save his name and his career in academia. Yet, in spite of it all, we can’t help but laugh as we contemplate Larry’s plight in a world with no silver linings that might just seem uncomfortably familiar to us all…
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"more than a bit of black comedy"
A Serious Man projects a cold, surreal world with plastic stock types isolated in a fit of relentless mockery. This is, of course, the butt of the comedy. Larry Gopnik's extraordinary procession of short-comings is hilarious as we watch his world plunge into a whirlwind of ill-fate. The surrealism sprinkled throughout is just smart film-making, keeping it from becoming a deep, ironic, and serious movie. It's a comedy with deeply serious undertones, not the other way around. A Serious Man has some great performances, specifically from the lead Michael Stuhlbargwith with his unique pathetic charm, and the filming is expert without ever drawing attention to itself. This film shows that there is a positive choice of what to do, and how to deal with it. As the young rabbi said very unconvincingly, there is another fresher way to look at things, and that is an opportunity.
In typical Coens fashion, the film leaves us at the edge of our seats. As the credits suddenly start to roll, we're left wondering, betrayed by the incorrect thought that we knew where the film was going. The story is easing and simplistic yet the Coens' sudden end inspires a galaxy of thought, slapping the audience with a revelation that this picture is much more than a bit of black comedy, unveiling its daring complexity and depth. It's not a film for everyone. However, if you don't get turned off by ethnic movies, Jewish in this case, and if you have a taste for the Coens then this is a must see. If you can't deal with weird stuff and offbeat films, then I suggest giving it a miss.