A Serious Man – 6 out of 10

Rating: 6 Out Of 10 PhilosoGuys

The Coen Brothers are master film makers. Making even just one film as good as Fargo, The Big Lebowski or No Country For Old Men would reserve a place of honor for any filmmaker. it just so happens that the Coen Brothers made all three…

A Serious Man is their latest film, telling the story of a Jewish-American family in the American Midwest. First, it must be said that this film is supposed to be a dark comedy. However, I did not laugh once. I was, at many times uncomfortable, but never in a humorous fashion. That having been said, the protagonist, Professor Larry Gopnik, played by Michael Stuhlbarg, is superb. He is the quintessential existentialism man, finding himself an an absurd and disconnected reality. He is wholly passive, unable to fight against the powers of his surroundings: His narcissistic wife, his airhead son, his shallow daughter and his idiot-savant brother. His only solace is the sanctity of his mathematical world, where numbers and equations provide his only true setting of certainty.

The movie, in its existentialism, is consistent (which is something commendable). Larry cannot find respite from reality in his Jewish faith. His first visit with a rabbi is pointless: the rabbi sees love and salvation in the parking lot of the temple (and Larry clearly cannot relate). The second rabbi, through his parable about a dentist who found Hebrew characters inscribed on the back of one of his patient’s teeth, comes to the verge of imparting knowledge to Larry, only to have his parable dissolve into meaninglessness. Larry himself never gets to the third rabbi, but his son (who is baked out of his mind) meets the rabbi after his bar mitzvah, who says some Jefferson Airplane lyrics, and teaches the boy only a minor lesson: to “Be Good.”

The ending of the film is, perhaps, the most powerful. Larry’s life is culminating and the movie is reaching climax. After spending a large sum of money on lawyer’s fees for the divorce with his wife (that never happened) and for inspecting the property lines at his house (only to have the inspector die of a heart attack during their meeting) Larry must accept a bribe from an Asian student who was failing Larry’s class. This all occurs in the shadow of a tenure hearing, which Larry finds out has deemed it appropriate to grant him tenure. This would have ended the story on a high note except that Larry is called into his doctor’s office to discuss his stomach x-rays that were taken at the beginning of the film.

While Larry learns of this news, his son’s school is evacuated in response to a tornado threat in the area. While his teacher bumbles for the keys to open the emergency shelter door, Danny Gopnik looks own as the tornado, a mere football field away, approaches. This whirlwind is an excellent ending: its uncontrollable nature and power are symbolic of the same exact powers this world holds over us all.

A Serious Man is a consistent film. It is also somewhat boring and, in the end, the viewer is left exactly where he began (which is where the Coen Brothers want you): understanding nothing. Ultimately, this begs the question: why bother watching it? The movie is worth watching but it is not up to par with other Coen Brother films, don’t expect a Fargo here.

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