A SERIOUS MAN

A SERIOUS MAN is not going to be considered a traditional entry in the Joel and Ethan Coen canon by some, and for certain there will be fans that are going to consider that a problem. Many followers dig them for their comedies that register rollicking surrealism, offbeat humor, and screwball nuttiness. If you’re one of those people that like the Coen Brothers for that, and nothing but that, you’re probably not going to like their latest work. There, it has been said so don’t say I didn’t tell you so. But if you’re one of these cinema connoisseurs always curious about the personal depths of idiosyncratic filmmakers (please read on), you might be the choice audience for this very peculiar film, which can be described as a very rare acquired taste.

The opening pre-credit prologue set a hundred years or something prior, which is disconnected from the rest of the film, is awful and nonsensical – the worst scene the Coens’ have ever directed (it's supposed to be a Yiddish folktale). Once the film finds a clean slate, the Coens’ are up to their necks in honoring, and satirizing, Jewish heritage in 1967 midwest suburbs. Adults are thriving orthodox followers or moral cowards, but the indifferent neighborhood of kids just wanna have fun. At Hebrew school, a boy’s transistor radio with Jefferson Airplane rock music is taken away from a school authority. This is the real start of the movie. It is soon followed by a student foreigner who tries to bribe his professor, only to supersede the situation with blackmail.

None of the actors are recognizable, as never has a Coen Brothers feature been so absent of stars (even their debut film “Blood Simple” had M. Emmet Walsh and Dan Hedaya). Theater actors and rarely seen character actors fill out the entire cast. Lead actor Michael Stuhlbarg, as professor Larry Gopnik, is a dull spineless mope until it dawns on you what a revelation the actor is to the part – he’s dull and spineless, but he’s a man who is desperate enough to want to ascend his failures. He is a serious, but brilliant man who wants to taste something from life that he can’t quite reach.

Throughout the movie, Larry is pitted against a litany of terrible plights and misfortunes: the agony of X-ray results, infringement of property lines, an upcoming tenure hearing that rings of looming disappointment, a car accident, an uncooperative TV antennae, and worst, news that his wife is leaving him for a neighbor Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed, a show-stopping ballsy performance). Sy is astonishingly ingratiating, barging into Larry’s home and offering his wisdom.

This is a very dry comedy, and you haven’t a clue on what dry comedy is, then you can see A SERIOUS MAN and learn as to what that’s like. Around the edges, a buzz of new problems always perpetuates, often with Larry adopting new problems against his willing. Sometimes the new problems come via external forces and sometimes it is family. Larry has a very loafish brother played by Richard Kind, likely the most recognizable face in the cast where you might think aloud “Where have I seen him?” Larry, on top of all his misery, has to cater to his unfortunate brother’s embarrassing secret that’s worthy of social ostracizing. In-between are visits to his lawyer and visits to his rabbi. It is part of the Coen deadpan humor that when he gets his rabbi counseling, it’s of a futile nature.

Even an erudite critic like me sometimes forgets about the Coens’ “The Man Who Wasn’t There,” which was their previous entry on the theme of the little man who gets stomped on. The Coens’ put you through the grinder, along with Larry, with their newest work which arrives at what initially feels like a frustrating and detached final punchline. That’s until you step back and consider that it’s Mother Nature intervening and dictating Larry’s destiny, a destiny where there is no way out but just to accept the fate that has been put in front of him. The black joke is that Larry will go down as the guy who gave way more than he ever received.

Food for thought is heavy in “A Serious Man,” and if you’re perceptive you can appreciate that it is personal for the Coens’ who have decorated their film with memories of their childhood atmosphere put right up on the screen. But I admit that I wouldn’t mind a light meal next time from the Coens’.

GRADE: B