A Serious Man

The book of Job is one of the more interesting in the bible. It’s the story of a man who never loses faith in god no matter how much god punishes him. I’m sure it was the original intent of the story to show that no matter how bad things get you should still have faith. But you can chock it up to either poor writing or brilliant writing that it can be interpreted other ways. You can come away from the story thinking that god is a true monster for relentlessly torturing someone just to prove a point. And so you might think that it’s okay to do despicable things just to prove you can, which it of course isn’t. More ingeniously and subversively it may have been written to sew the seeds of doubt, sort of a wink at the reader to show that these are just fables meant to teach a lesson and you shouldn’t put too much stock in them because clearly the writers didn’t try very hard. The Coen brothers are masters of storytelling and would never let such a glaring plot hole undermine any of their stories, even when they use Job as their jumping off point.

“A Serious Man” is the about a Jewish physics professor in the late 60’s whose wife is leaving him, whose kids don’t care about him, he’s being blackmailed at work, his brother is a screw up, and essentially every other miserable thing you can think of is happening to him, all around the time that his son is to be Bar Mitzvah-ed. There’s not much I can say about this film that isn’t obvious if you are familiar with the Coen brothers. If you aren’t familiar with the Coen brothers then get familiar with the Coen brothers. They are film geniuses, and there isn’t one wrong move or misstep in the entire film. It is funny and dark and unnerving and perfectly executed. The acting in the film is great and spot on, especially by the lead actor. It is sprinkled with brilliant little bit parts by different actors throughout who do an exceptional job. The directing is outstanding, as expected, and the look of the film is marvelous. This isn’t a particularly exciting story with tons of twists and turns, but it has enough to keep you involved, and it is just an ingeniously written film. The Coen brothers’ work should be dissected and studied if you ever want to learn to perfect way to craft a story. Supposedly this movie is the Coen’s most autobiographical, as they too grew up in the sixties in the Midwest, but I don’t see it. That’s just the surface, the backdrop for this story, and is the least important part. It seems to me that they put as much of themselves in this film as in any of their films, this one just draws the easiest comparisons.

The lesson you come away with at the end of this film seems to be that there really is no god, and bad things happen because they just happen and they will most likely happen to all of us. It’s bleak, but nobody ever accused the Coen brothers of being idealistic. One thing is certain, there is really no room for interpretation, which in this case is a sign of good writing. This movie isn’t out everywhere and it may never be. The Coen brothers sometimes relish the idea of doing a small movie. But if you find you have the means and the opportunity to see this movie then do it. And for that matter see every Coen brothers' movie; they happen to be some of the best American films ever made.