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Review of A Serious Man
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© Focus Features
Ah, the Coen Bros.; they're the cinematic equivalent of intellectual comfort food. Every time they release a new movie, it's a guarantee that it will contain a lot of symbolism, great writing, well-drawn-out characters and some genuinely funny moments mined from life's most dismal areas. Their latest, A Serious Man, is no exception. As usual, you can see this excellent film at New Hampshire's premier purveyor of great movies, Red River Theatres.
In the spring of 1967, Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a college professor on the verge of earning tenure, begins to witness his life unravel around him. His wife wants a divorce so she can marry a family friend, he has a property line issue with his neighbor, his children don't respect him, his brother, who has a gambling addiction, lives with him and his family and he's being accused of accepting a bribe to change a student's failing grade. Oh, and he gets into a car accident in the middle of all this. To say he has problems is something of an understatement so he seeks the advice of three rabbis to gain some perspective and insight into his current situation.
The Coen's have crafted a very simplistic and straight-forward tale of moral fortitude with A Serious Man. This movie poses the question, how does one stay devout and faithful to his way of life when everything around him seems to be changing for the worse? Not an easy question to answer certainly but this film is a rare occasion in that, unlike No Country for Old Men (whose ambiguous ending didn't bother this critic), the end provides a definitive answer. Something else this film provides are excellent performances. Sthulbarg portrays Larry as a man befuddled and beyond stressed by everything that's happening to him. He does this very convincingly and it makes the audience identify with him all the more. Fred Melamed as Sy Ableman, the man whom Larry's wife Judith wants to marry, is one of the highlights of the film for its creepiness and the utter dislike it inspires. The Coen's cast A Serious Man with all Jewish actors to lend to its authenticity and this ends up being a winning strategy as you find yourself buying into the film's environment and the community that exists within it.
I highly recommend this film which will hopefully get some nods come awards season, which is just around the corner. Once again, head up to Red River Theatres in Concord to check out A Serious Man where it will be showing all week.
