Review: A Serious Man

Larry Gopnik, a lowly Jewish physics professor, is fighting to keep his life together. His children are picking up deviant behavior, including illegal drugs and stealing money from his wallet. They seem more interested on their material things than their family or religion. His wife is leaving him for a socially superior peer. One student is trying to bribe him for good grades while another sends hostile letters trying to sabotage his chances at tenure. All the while his socially-inept brother becomes a bigger and bigger burden as time goes on. Larry's attempts at counsel with three seperate rabbis has been unfruitful and his son's Bar Mitzvah is approaching.

The Coen Brothers are probably one of my favorite filmmakers. Their obsession with human suffering and mortality and the humor that lies within have been endlessly entertaining in their past work. It has never been more clear than in this film. It is obviously very personal evoking much of their own religious faith and tradition, but unfortunately esoteric. As universal as some of the themes are, a lack of knowledge in Jewish tradition certainly hinders some of the effect and makes it much less accessible thana general existential plot.

Of course, as a movie described as a comedy, it fails on a fundamental level: it isn't very funny. In fact, most times it drags and settles on an incredibly slow pace. Many of its attempts at humor come from repetetive actions. The running jokes are certainly overkill. The obnoxiously grim narrative causes a major disconnect from the cast and leaves very littel empathy. The acting si impressive enought to turn a few heads, but the unbalanced tone gives the characters nothing to hope for or laugh at thus making them all incredibly intolerable.

Yet ultimately, the ending is incredibly satisfying. The rarely seen but often spoke of rabbi makes an appearance. He spouts off words of wisdom ripped from a Jefferson Airplane song. Larry is left talking on the phone mid-conversation. Danny is left staring at an on-coming tornado. There is something profound here somewhere. More effectively than any element of the story, the audience is left with questions to ponder about the bigger picture than just way to specific problems of a single individual.

It is ahrd to imagine that any of this bodes well for the Coen's preconceptions when they depict so much ugliness during this rather bleak search for the meaning of life. For isntance, religion seems practically useless in the face of all these problems. One rabbi is too young to relate to Larry. The other spouts off an anecdote that he is well known for recycling in the face of any problem. The last, and most respected, rabbi makes no time for Larry, yet all he can give Danny is a lyric.

4/10. The Coen Brothers' regular themes and filmmaking techniques are abound, but their storytelling methods are inferior to their past attempts. They fail to keep interest going over the course of the film, but it seems obvious that this was more of a film for them than us.