The Observer

Issue date: 11/6/09 Section: Focus

A Serious Man [Click to enlarge]

Michael Stuhlbarg (foreground) and Adam Arkin (background) star in dark comedy A Serious Man, the third Coen Brothers film in three years. [Click to enlarge]

The darkly brilliant filmmaking duo of Joel and Ethan Coen has, for the third time in three years, produced a new film. Affectionately referred to as the Coen brothers, they are well-known for their knack at making offbeat, yet hit films with an eye for detail. In the past they've made audiences laugh with films like Raising Arizona and Burn After Reading, thrilled them with Fargo, and made them ponder the absurdities of life with films like The Big Lebowski and No Country for Old Men. Their latest release, A Serious Man, falls in with the latter of those distinctions.

The film revolves around Larry Gopnik, a physics professor and Jewish father in suburban America in 1967. This, like their recent Best Picture Academy Award winner No Country For Old Men, is not full of laughs, nor does it engage its viewers in a thrilling mystery. Instead, it is a piece of cinema that focuses on a slice of suburban life, and is rife with symbolism. As contingent with the attention to detail that the Coen Brothers are known for, they make every scene count, with no excess or unnecessary footage.

While the film is shown through the perspective of our unfortunate protagonist, Larry, it deals with the problems of his wife, kids, brother, and even his students. The one thing that ties all of the assorted characters together is misfortune. The specter of death seems to follow all of the characters throughout the entire movie. This is oddly fitting because the movie opens with a short prologue that portrays a Jewish parable about a dybbuk, or demon that inhabits the dead. Setting the tone for the film from the beginning, the Coen Brothers proceed with a little over an hour and a half of heartbreak and unanswered questions.

Similar to No Country for Old Men, it leaves viewers wondering what the exact message that the film was trying to drive home was at the end. Luckily, it is not quite as cryptic. While No Country was about chance and the seeming randomness of life, A Serious Man is about dependence and idleness. The characters that don't work to better themselves get the short end of the stick; and the ones that do, do so at the expense of others. These tribulations revolve around what the characters want from life. Each adult seems to be grasping to get their grip on the "bigger picture." The characters that are too young to think about what they want from life are caught up in the moment and do what any suburban kid would do, fritter away their time with the frivolities that come hand-in-hand with being one of a hundred cookie-cutter children on your block.

The film seems to have a few anachronistic tendencies, setting up viewpoints that mirror any teen drama from the last decade, and putting them in a 1960s costume. Yet still the film seems to send a strong message. Despite being somewhat disturbing, it is very well done and quite thought-provoking. Rarely is intentional ambiguity used on this level in a film, and almost never carried out this well. Overall, the film is a haunting portrayal of the meaninglessness of life, leaving you questioning yourself and God, like many of its characters end up doing.

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