A Serious Man

If you believe most movie critics and stuffy film aficionados, the release of a Coen Brothers movie is akin to the birth of Jesus compelling fans to sing alleluia and buy their tickets with Frankincense and Mir. Don't buy into the hype! I might be at risk of having my movie critic card stripped out of my hands for saying it, but A Serious Man is no more special a Jennifer Aniston movie.

Set in 1967, Michael Stuhlbarg stars as Larry Gopnik - a physics professor whose life is falling apart. His wife, Judith (Sari Lennick), wants a divorce so she can marry a guy she has been seeing on the side, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed). Larry is up for tenure, but someone is writing denigrating letters to the committee. His kids are rotten. His brother, Arthur (Richard Kind), is living on his couch with no hope of getting a job and moving out. His neighbor is a jerk, and one of his students will stop at nothing to get a passing grade.

Can Larry survive this tornado of trouble in his life?

A Serious Man isn't a movie about story, but a chance to watch the unending misery of one man, and laugh at some of it. Like most films written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen, A Serious Man has a weird, quirky, and restrained tone with most characters acting a bit aloof and cold. They aren't human.

Sometimes, this leads to funny, deadpan responses, but mostly it leads to an audience member begging for them to come to life, especially as Larry is the one character consistently alive and demonstrative amid a sea of disinterest. Sure, we get some funny gags sprinkled like nuggets of comedy buried in a desert of dryness the rest of the film resembles, but A Serious Man is not coherent. Almost every attempt to provide a plot ends up being a red herring.

After starting with a pointless opening scene, and leaving the audience in a cloud, A Serious Man gets better as the movie progresses, especially as we see Stuhlbarg show us how Larry is falling apart bit by bit (it is a great performance in a movie that doesn't deserve it). However, A Serious Man has an ending only the guys who write The Sopranos would love.

A Serious Man is rated R for language, some sexuality/nudity and brief violence.