The Coen
brothers have a long career of creative choices and standout successes. They
followed the success of Fargo Fargo
This darkly
humorous endeavor doesn’t include any wood chippers, ill-fated kidnappings, or
violence of any kind. The movie is painful to watch because of the onslaught of
trouble placed upon Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg). The film begins with an
odd prologue that can only be speculated upon after the conclusion of the film.
In a Jewish community a man allows a dybbuk into his home unknowingly. A dybbuk
is the spirit of a dead person, roaming the earth and said to cause bad luck
when crossed.
Whether Larry is
cursed because of his ancestor’s interaction with a dead man or simply because
of the randomness of life is unclear. What is certain is that little seems to
be going right for Larry when we enter the storyline. His wife (Sari Lennick)
is leaving him for Larry’s best friend, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed). As if this
weren’t bad enough, Sy wants desperately to talk the whole situation over with
him. They force a peaceful separation on Larry. Meanwhile Larry’s children are
both selfishly absorbed in their own melodrama. His daughter (Jessica McManus)
is saving up for a nose job while his son (Aaron Wolff) is saving up to pay off
a large bully he owes.
The confusion on
Stuhlbarg’s face is a perfect reaction to most of these situations; Larry works
as a math professor who seeks for the solution practically and rationally. With
the non-stop disaster taking over his life, Larry cannot comprehend what he did
to deserve such trouble. His job is no better, as the tenure board is receiving
anonymous negative notes about Larry and a student attempts to ruin his career
when a bribe for a better grade is not accepted.
A Serious Man is not the most accessible
of the Coen brothers’ films, but those who appreciate their sense of humor will
praise it as one of their best. The Blu-ray includes a number of special
features that fans will also appreciate, including a look at the personal
connections between the filmmakers and the film. There is also a featurette on
the creation of the neighborhood sets of Minneapolis
Entertainment Value:
7/10
Quality of
Filmmaking: 9/10
Historical
Significance: 7/10
Disc Features: 7/10
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