Synopsis: Academy Award-winning directors Joel and Ethan Coen return to their comedy roots with this original and darkly humorous story about one ordinary man’s quest to become a serious man. Physics professor Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) can’t believe his life: His wife is leaving him for his best friend, his unemployed brother won’t move off the couch, someone is threatening his career, his kids are a mystery and his neighbor is tormenting him by sunbathing nude. Struggling to make sense of it all, Larry consults three different rabbis and their answers lead him on a twisted journey of faith, family, delinquent behavior and mortality in the film critics rave is “seriously awesome!” (Michael Hogan, Vanity Fair)
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A Serious Man 8.0

Speaking as a goy, I found ‘A Serious Man’ to be a minor challenge…

While it was easy to empathize with a character who’s facing the slow disintegration of his whole life before his very eyes, and feels helpless to prevent it, I was also at a complete loss when faced with Jewish cultural references. Case-in-point: as of the half-mark, there’s a semi-regular reference to being “a serious man” – as though this were a commendable thing to be, as though it were a virtue.

Obviously, there is some sort of cultural thing that I’m not familiar with here. But what is it? Going in, I sincerely thought that they meant “serious” as the opposite of “light” or “humourous”. Clearly I was wrong, but I didn’t know any better. But I’m convinced that some people saw the title and immediately got the reference, giving them a very different perspective than mine, insight.

Thankfully, the DVD presents a small introduction to Jewish lingo. However, you only get this in the special features section, so it’s likely not a reflex to go watch this prior to the film. Anyway, it’s very basic and only provides a few key bits that I was (somewhat) already aware of. One thing for sure, it’s nothing quite like the ingenious DVD edition of ‘Nezu no ban’, which features a running text function that fully explains the cultural significance of each bit of the film (see my review of the film for details).

Still, I quite enjoyed ‘A Serious Man’, and will want to watch it again (even though I suspect that I would have appreciated its finer points more if I was versed in Jewish culture); it is, after all, a rich human drama peppered with humour. And it has as good a cast as you can get, though only one actor was familiar to me. Plus it has the usual terrific script and great direction, courtesy of Joel and Ethan Coen (when did the Coen Brothers ever misfire? Even their worst is pretty darned good… ).

As it stand, though, I don’t have much to say about this one that the synopsis won’t already reveal. It’s quite enjoyable, but I suspect that this is one film that will grow on me over time, as I finally pick up on all its subtleties. I can only imagine how amazing this film must be for those who get it fully and completely. It must be one “serious” film.