Just watched...

...The Coen Brothers' "A Serious Man."


This 2009 Coen Brothers release is an amazing, overlooked gem of a film. Joel and Ethan Coen have made some classic films in their careers, solidifying themselves as purveyors of a certain kind of bleak narrative, rooted in existentialism but laced with black humor. And “A Serious Man” ranks among the best in their established genre.

The film opens with a tiny parable that seems like it comes straight out of Jewish folklore—but in truth, it was written by the Coens for the film since they could not find anything suitable in actual Jewish folklore. In a European shtetl in the early part of the 20th century, a couple are visited by a neighbor who may or may not be a dybbuck (a sort of Jewish zombie). The wife insists that the neighbor recently died of typhus, but the husband sees the proof of the living man right in front of him. Eventually the wife, with quite a sense of sang-froid, plunges an ice pick into the chest of the neighbor who laughs, and wanders off bleeding into the night. The wife feels that she has proved her point, but the husband is devastated, predicting that they will be punished for killing the neighbor.

What could that short introduction possibly have to do with the rest of the film that takes place in St. Louis Park, Minnesota (where, not coincidentally, the Coens grew up) in the late 1960s? Although the Coen Brothers have stated that there is no thematic through line, there is definitely a sense that links the prelude with the rest of the film. And that sense is the sense of the unknown.

In a general way, “A Serious Man” is a film about not having answers, and beyond that, it is about the fact that there is no possibility of getting answers. In this film, we follow Larry Gopnick, a physics professor and put-upon everyman. The Coens like to use the everyman device to illustrate a world that does not makes sense. The poor everyman becomes confused and paralyzed in the face of ever-increasing insanity (watch “Barton Fink”) and bizarre twists of fate (watch “Burn After Reading”). In 2000, the Coens made a brilliant film called “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” which was based on Homer’s ODYYSEY, so with that in mind, it makes sense that, given the motif of the everyman, “A Serious Man” is loosely based on The Book of Job. Our hero, Larry Gopnick, suffers one unraveling string, one indignity, one calamitous misunderstanding after another. Larry is blindsided—he doesn’t see any of this coming at him, and indeed, there’s no way anyone could. Out of nowhere, metaphorical bowling balls are dropped on his foot at every turn. As his life spins more and more out of control, he reaches out for help, for answers about what he should do and how he should respond to these mounting, insufferable situations. He goes to speak to two different rabbis, hoping to glean some practical advice about a course of action but all he gets is rambling, smiling nonsense about parking lots and dental molds. (Later in the film, a third rabbi even quotes a Jefferson Airplane song.) But he is still at a loss as to what to do in the face of so many dilemmas. Larry has no answers, we have no answers, and the film even ends before it really ends, clipped off moments before the ultimate disaster hits.

So if this film is generally about not having answers, it is specifically about the uselessness of religion as a source of answers. Poor Larry practically begs, “What does HaShem [Jewish name for God] want from me? What does HaShem want me to do?” But no one can tell him. Religion is good at certain things—a sense of community, pretty inspiring thoughts—but when one needs real world, actual advice, parables and stories and metaphors are not going to cut it. We don’t know what to do or how to do it. We do not have answers. No one does. Is the old neighbor a dybbuck? Who knows? What is going to happen to Larry and his family? Who knows? All you can do is make decisions for yourself based on what you have in front of you at that moment. Larry is paralyzed and unable to make any kind of decision. Life steamrolls over him. But if he were able to say “No” or “Stop,” some of his problems would be either gone or mitigated. Really, the film is about taking control and responsibility for your own life instead of waiting for something else (religion) or someone else (a rabbi) to do that for you. The film arrives at this place in a fairly dark, murky, and complicated way.

Now that we have that out of the way, I will say that the production values are outstanding as well. Of course the direction is amazing and paced perfectly, every actor is spot on with what he or she has been given to do, and the art direction is excellent and captured the feel of 1967 in every little detail of homes, clothing, and cars. There is a certain kind of clarity to the photography, a sense of hyper-reality that adds to the unsettling nature of the story. The film is thoroughly realized and so totally itself, that it is easy to simply take it for granted and assume that we are watching a slice of life. But this slice has been carefully and expertly planned, created, and executed. It exists in its own complete world. Take a peek into it and you'll see parts of our world there as well…

Recommend? Yes.

http://www.filminfocus.com/focusfeatures/film/a_serious_man/