sassonlonner
As someone who's gone to a Jewish day school for 13 years, this movie is hysterical, letting me understand a lot of subtle jokes, like when Danny reaches for his head while running in the wind for his Yamaka, and other really true Jewish stereotypes which may be more subtle to those watching the movie who are not Jewish. But seriously, you do not have to be Jewish to appreciate and enjoy this film. The main family is Jewish, but the movie as a whole is making a statement about religion and the concept of God as a whole (I happen to be an atheist by the way even though I've gone to Jewish day school). Anyone who can appreciate the concept of religion and faith will get a lot out of A Serious Man. Being honest, I'm the kind of person who when I hear something is about religion, I go into it thinking it's going to be boring, and it's going to be attempting to hypnotize me or something. Yet this movie is very different. Remember, it's directed by the Coen Brothers. They make movies about crime, and violence, not "Praise the Lord" crazy religious propaganda.
The plot of the movie also revolves a lot about the idea of karma, and why do bad things happen to good things. The movie relies on the idea that there is a god, and not just any god, but a god who really couldn't care less about you, and is ready to let you die at a finger snap. The movie is full of quick turns of good and bad in the life of Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), establishing the point that God will just do what he wants, and even the slightest wrongdoing may make him choose it's time for you to die.
As a whole, I really enjoyed this movie. I thought it had a really good idea behind it, and love bringing the Coen Brothers style in on a movie about religion. Although the movie could have brought some more explanations to it about why Sy Ableman's name makes everyone gasp, and the ending could have gone a bit more in depth, and parts of it were a bit to vague for my liking. But putting that aside, A Serious Man is definitely a movie I'd recommend.
Kirpianuscus
At first sigh, theirs names annswers to all questions. in reasonable way. because, it is a story about solitude, family crisis, Jewish humor and stereotypes, the need to adapte yourself to a world without meaning. in same ,measure, it is a challenge for viewer. to define himself. to be honest about the perspectivve about small details defining ordinary every day life. and this is the basic motif for see this special film.
Wuchak
Released in 2009 and written & directed by the Coen brothers, "A Serious Man" is a black comedy/drama/satire about a passive Minneapolis physics professor (Michael Stuhlbarg) in 1967 who faces a series of tragedies and desperately seeks the answers 'Why?' Sari Lennick plays his unfaithful wife and Fred Melamed (who looks like Francis Ford Coppola) her lover. Richard Kind appears as the eccentric (maybe genius) uncle while Aaron Wolff & Jessica McManus play the kids. Amy Landecker is on hand as a sexpot neighbor. Simon Helberg (from The Big Bang Theory) has a small role as an assistant rabbi. There's a prologue that was shot in the Czech Republic which the Coens say has no link to the rest of the movie. Really? It struck me as rather tedious and, if it has no connection to the story, why is it there? Actually, I didn't find the entire first half of the film very entertaining and the protagonist's ultra-passivism started to become exasperating, but around the halfway point things began to click and I found myself consistently amused till the end.Freely borrowing from the awesome book of Job, this movie will obviously play better to Jewish and Christian audiences; perhaps also other spiritual seekers. It addresses the deep questions of life and the inherent challenges of the human condition (trapped in a physical shell in a fallen world while yearning for the perfect and divine) with a good sense of satirical humor. The song "Somebody to Love" by Jefferson Airplane is a focal point and supposedly holds the non-answers:"When the truth is found to be lies; And all the joy within you dies. Don't you want somebody to love? Don't you need somebody to love? Wouldn't you love somebody to love? You better find somebody to love." There are anachronistic references to two albums: Santana's Abraxas and Creedence Clearwater Revival's Cosmo's Factory, which weren't released until 1970, three years after the events in the film. The movie runs 106 minutes and was shot in the Minneapolis, Minnesota, area (e.g. the suburban scenes were filmed in Bloomington), including St. Louis Park, where I spent my childhood. GRADE: B-
ravitchn
This movie is a wonderful assessment of the defunct quality of American Judaism in the current period, or the last half century. Larry Gopnik, for reasons I cannot see, seems inclined to want to understand his dilemmas and woes, as well as his successes, as the work of God, calling Him by the orthodox Jewish evasion Ha Shem (the Name). Trying to do this he encounters Jews, both rabbis and ordinary Jews, who give him Jewish answers to his questions, answers which have been unsatisfactory since the writing of the Book of Job many centuries ago. The rabbis are evasive, superficially knowledgeable, self-righteous, and in general ridiculous. The ending, which I will not reveal, is pure Coen Brothers: sardonic and outrageously true.The Jews portrayed could be considered anti-semitic caricature: all have big noses, loud voices, unpleasant expressions, etc. But the Coen Bros. are Jewish and know the tribe pretty well. The only Jew in the whole movie who comes out looking good is the old bearded rabbi Marshak. The start of the movie, in some Galician shtetl, is funny but misleading. The Yiddish spoken there is the Galizianer type which is very different from the Yiddish of the much more educated Litvaks in pre-Hitler Europe. I doubt many who even know Yiddish would understand it, but there are subtitles.In short not a happy movie but one which Jews need to take seriously lest they pretend their obsolete religion can have any relevance today. Christianity is just as irrelevant but in different ways.
AD
