A Serious Man
When the truth is found to be lies
And all the joy within you dies
Don’t you want somebody to love?
Based on what I’ve seen so far this year (and, of course, I’ve missed some films and haven’t had access to others quite yet) this poster is pretty accurate. The Coen Brothers have knocked it out of the park. Again. After the highly enjoyable but undoubtedly screwball Burn After Reading, the Bros have returned with a more serious film. A very serious film. About very serious things. Big things. Like what It all means. What God’s plan is. Why bad things happen. How to be good. How to be… A Serious Man.
And of course it’s really, really funny. And really, really Jewish.
The basic idea is a very loose adaptation of the story of Job, set in 1967 suburban Minnesota. Larry Gopnik is a physics professor who has tried to be a good Jew his whole life. He’s always tried to do the right thing. He has a wife, two teenage kids, and he’s about to be granted tenure at his university. Everything’s alright.
Then one day, his wife is asking for a divorce out of the blue, a Korean student is simultaneously bribing and blackmailing him, his neighbor is imposing on his property line and dropping not-so-subtle hints of anti-semitism, his brother is wanted by the police for a variety of things, his daughter wants a nose job, his son is living in fear of a bully to whom he owes twenty bucks for marijuana, etc. etc.
But at least his smokin’ neighbor Mrs. Samsky has taken to sunbathing in the nude, right?
All Larry wants is advice. He wants someone to tell him what God is trying to teach him, but all his rabbis can offer is musings on the parking lot and inconsequential stories about dentists. All anybody else can offer is encouragement to seek the advice of said rabbis.
It all has the Coens’ trademarks: the specifically quirky midwestern side-characters, the rich set and costume design, the ultra-tight-fistedly controlled editing, the always-great Roger Deakins cinematography, the ominous score reminding us that, though we’re laughing, this will probably all end very badly… But it also has the personal details of a world that usually mark a first work, when an artist has compiled so many specific touches of memory and loads them into one story. So, the film feels fresh in spite of its creators’ familiar trimmings.
A Serious Man also feels like the Coens’ most “indie” film since Barton Fink, perhaps most attributable to the lack of any recognizable names in the cast. You’ll recognize some faces, but you won’t really know from where, and there certainly isn’t a “Clooney” or “Pitt” or “Jones” to put on the poster. No matter, the cast is pretty much perfect. Michael Stuhlbarg kills it as the confounded Larry, striking the right balance between the trying everyman and the laughably pitiable. Fred Melamed is a scene-stealer in his frustratingly calm performance of Sy Abelman, the arrogant bear of a man for whom Larry’s wife is leaving him. You don’t know whether to laugh at, feel sorry for, or just be creeped out by Richard Kind as Larry’s brother Arthur Gopnik. The answer is all three, and then he delivers one of the film’s most affecting scenes.
In the end, it’s a film about the Absurdity of faith. Or, rather, the search for faith. Err, the need for faith. At least, the need for Answers. Life presents us with Big Questions. These Big Questions demand Answers. Life demands We come up with Them. But Life doesn’t make Them available to Us. What, then?
Then, the Coens present us with what I truly consider one of the most astounding endings a film has ever had.
And, apparently, it all has something to do with Jefferson Airplane.
