“TYPICAL COEN MADNESS”
Starring: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed, Sari Lennick, Adam Arkin Aaron Wolff, Jessica Mcmanus and Amy Landecker
Directed by: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
MPAA Rating: R for language, drug use, some sexuality/nudity and brief violence.
Genre: Comedy, Drama
Release Date: October 2009
By John Delia
If you think you have troubles, then go to the movies and see A Serious Man. I found myself laughing during most of the film and even at the wrong time. Filled with all the things you would not want to happen to you, it becomes an outlet to make you feel better about yourself. Extremely good acting, presentation by the Coen brothers and a cool look at the early 60’s, what more can you ask for.
The story of an ordinary man’s search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and F-Troop is on TV. The year is 1967 and we find Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a quiet mid-western university being informed by his wife Judith that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous acquaintances, Sy Ableman, who seems to her a more substantial person than the feckless Larry. Larry’s unemployable brother Arthur is sleeping on the couch, his son Danny is a discipline problem and a shirker at Hebrew school, and his daughter Sarah is stealing money from his wallet in order to save up for a nose job.
While his wife and Sy Ableman boldly make new domestic arrangements, and his brother becomes more and more of a burden, an anonymous hostile letter-writer is trying to sabotage Larry’s chances for tenure at the university. Also, a graduate student seems to be trying to bribe him for a passing grade while at the same time threatening to sue him for defamation. Plus, the beautiful woman next door torments him by sunbathing nude. Struggling for equilibrium, Larry seeks advice from three different rabbis. Can anyone help him cope with his afflictions and become a righteous person – a mensch – a serious man?
A Serious Man is typical Joel and Ethan Coen. The brothers have been making incredible films involving life situations forever including No Country For Old Men, Burn After Reading and O Brother Where Art Thou. Here they take a down sliding family and involve the audience in their crumbling life. All in fun of course, but in some cases a reality and that’s what makes A Serious Man a gem.
The acting by the relatively unknown cast makes the characters enjoyable to watch. Each individual has its little quirks and that’s what makes the film funny. Whether it’s Judith making plans with her new lover Sy in front of her husband or Larry’s Rabbis giving him bad advice (or no advice at all) the absurdity is never ending.
The film is rated R for language, drug use, sexuality/nudity and brief violence so it’s a story about life.
FINAL ANALYSIS: It’s a typical Coen Brothers film without hostilities. Oh wait, there is some hostility.