A Serious Man
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Released:15/03/2010
More Details
Studio:Universal Pictures UK
Director:Ethan Coen
Cast: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed, Sari Lennick, Aaron Wolff
Running Time:105 minutes
Tags
Drama, Comedy
Reviews
- Cruel, dark and infuriating- classic Coen Brothers.
This film came as a great relief to me... I was seriously convinced that my beloved Coens had lost it altogether. I hadn't really enjoyed one of their films since The Man Who Wasn't There; Intolerable Cruelty, The Ladykillers, Burn After Reading and yes, even the lauded to the high heavens No Country For Old Men all left me cold. This film was the first time in a decade I didn't bother going to the cinema to see a new Coen Brothers film, because I just expected more disappointment. I eventually rented it last week, and it massively exceeded my expectations, being fresh, funny and consistently entertaining.
It tells the story of a middle aged jewish man in the sixties whose life is falling to pieces- his wife is unfaithful, his promotion is being threatened by a disgruntled student who is prepared to resort to bribery and blackmail to attain a passing grade, his son is in love with the counter culture and is more interested in getting high and listening to Jefferson Airplane than preparing for his Bar Mitzvah (and who can blame him!) Desperate for help, he goes to see three Rabbis who, as you'd expect from a Coen Brothers film, run the gamut from a bit weird to colourfully insane.
A lot of the negative reviews here make complaints I can sympathise with; yes, it doesn't go anywhere, it has long, seemingly irrelevant bits, the beginning and ending are both confusing and obtuse and offer no explanation whatsoever; its weird for weirds sake, its pretentious, its elitist arty nonsense, too clever for its own good etc.... often with independent films I find just these kind of things extremely offputting. Like most people, I don't like feeling stupid, so when things confuse me I get frustrated; but this film was so charming I didn't mind being stumped by the significance of the opening scene, about Jewish peasants receiving a visit from an evil spirit called a 'dybbuk', or the ending, which I won't disclose. I also didn't mind that it didn't go through a routine beginning, middle and end and resolve itself, because its that kind of playful spirit and desire to keep things original, even while riffing on genre staples, that make the Coen Brothers' films special. And now I can happily go back to looking forward to their next film.
After a period in which my love for the Cohen brothers' movies was diminished, mainly due to the feeling that their own personal style I very much admired in movies such as Barton Fink, Fargo, Raising Arisona, The Miller Crossing and Hudsucker Proxy was beginning to suffer from repetition, I welcomed with enthousiasm what I sensed as their comeback (in my heart, at least), not with the generally acclaimed No country for the old man, but with Burn after reading, which I considered fantastic. And then along came A serious man, which in my opinion, is their definite masterpiece and also a rare film for these times of mediocracy. It is not the meanings, it is not the form, it is not the story; in the greatest of films it' s the feeling that you have a unique experience of another world, created by the minds and the hands of some genuine masters. This is the case of A serious man. Absolutely fabulous for all the possible reasons. A movie to die for.
Buy this wonderful film - the best from Coen Brothers yet - but look up Shrödinger's Cat on the Internet before you view. The opening scene, which at first looks to have no connection with the rest of the film, has confused most reviewers. It's an illustration of Shrödinger's Cat - itself an interpretation of uncertainty in Quantum Theory - in which the cat is dead and alive at the same time. The protagonist, Larry, lectures on Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle. Look carefully at one of the scenes in Larry's lecture theatre and you'll see a mention of the cat on the blackboard behind him. Apart from laying the foundation for the uncertainty that pervades the rest of the film, it's given the Coen Brothers a chance to display one of their least endearing characteristics: laughing up their sleeves.
A brilliant and hugely funny film.
Chaos reigns in this world and there is nothing we can do to change this reality. The Coen Brothers have once again produced a picture of breathtaking quality expertly photographed by Roger Deakins. At turns funny and deathly depressing this was without doubt the film of 2009. If you enjoy interesting, challenging Hollywood pictures littered with excellent performances (especially by Fred Melamed as Sy Albeman - perhaps the years most disgusting movie villain) then you can do no better than purchase this DVD. In many ways A Serious Man should be seen as the natural follow up to No Country for Old Men with the bad luck of Larry Gopnik providing a perhaps even more frightening exploration of our precarious existence than that represented by Anton Chigurh.
Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) a Jewish Physics Professor living in the suburban Midwest in 1967 is having a tough time, his Wife Judith (Sari Lennick) is leaving him for a colleague Sy Abelman (Fred Melame), his Brother Arthur (Richard Kind) is unemployed and won't move off the couch. All this and he has his son Danny's (Aaron Wolff) Bar Mitzvah approaching. In an attempt to see where it all went wrong he consults 3 different Rabbi's
Much has been made about this being the Coen Brothers most personal to date but although this is their most human film, these situations are born from their experiences and characters have traits of people from their past, this is not autobiographical. The story is reminiscent of their childhood but none of it is based on any of the brothers or their family members. After the misfire of Burn After Reading, (entertaining but falling short of usual Coens standard) and unlike that film , A Serious Man is pleasantly lacking the big name cast that must rank as the brothers most starry to date, refreshingly short of Hollywood names and it's likely Kind as Arthur and Adam Arkin as Larry's Lawyer will be the only faces that feel familiar.
Stuhlbarg a relative unknown shows no signs of never carrying a film himself and invests the character with warmth and grounds the film beautifully, you will see parallels with William H Macy's Jerry Lundegaard but Larry is likeable and nowhere the unpleasant scum bag Macy essays so well in the Coen's classic Fargo, Stulhlbarg more echoes Macy in the way that you feel he's ready to explode but keeps the character from disappearing into parody, the moments where he find out he's been unknowingly enrolled in a record club (Santana's Abraxas?) are just some of the hugely amusing moments within this thoroughly enjoyable comedy, which must rank as the brothers best since the cult classic The Big Liebowski .
Melame in the crucial role of Sy Abelman practically steals every scene he's in, breaking the news to Larry that he's in the process of stealing his Wife from him but also expressing his respect for him, the contradiction is almost forgotten with Melame's silky smooth delivery which is more than likely to join other classic supporting characters within the brothers C.V.
It's not essential you understand the Yiddish slang to enjoy this but the film does rely on its vocabulary throughout and the opening sequence set in a 19th century Polish shtetl which bears no relation to the story that follows is completely in Jewish and subtitled, the Coen's said they wanted to start with a Yiddish folk tale but didn't know one so like Fargo just made it up.
The brothers films are always helped by the talent they surround themselves with and as well as Coens regular Roger Deakins providing his usual standard of cinematography (beautifully lensed), both Jess Conchor's production design and Mary Zophres costume design are vital to creating the 1967 mid western suburban setting with its meticulously manicured lawns and authentic fashions of the time. Refreshingly we are in a crime free universe for Joel and Ethan but this is unmistakeably their universe the film is punctuated throughout with surreal dream sequences that recall some of their previous work.
Those infuriated by the ending of No Country For Old Men are likely to be no less pleased but the ending serve as more of a cliffhanger than the abrupt finish to their take on Cormac McCarthy's bestseller.
A Serious Man is beautifully written, shot and acted and definitely up there with the Coen's finest and like all their work is open to your own interpretation, one thing is for sure your time will not be wasted within its duration.
