A Serious Man (2009)

User Rating:

8.4/10   

Directors:

Ethan Coen
Joel Coen

Writers (WGA):

Joel Coen (written by) &
Ethan Coen (written by)

Release Date:

9 October 2009 (Denmark)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

A black comedy set in 1967 and centered on Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern professor who watches his life unravel when his wife prepares to leave him because his inept brother won't move out of the house. |

Plot Keywords:

Black Comedy | Professor | Jewish | Female Frontal Nudity | Merkin Wig

Awards:

2 nominations

US Showtimes:

The Landmark

11:50am | 2:20pm | 4:55 | 7:25 | 9:55

(personalize)

Cast

Michael Stuhlbarg	...	Larry Gopnik
Richard Kind	...	Uncle Arthur
Fred Melamed	...	Sy Ableman
Sari Lennick	...	Judith Gopnik
Aaron Wolff	...	Danny Gopnik
Jessica McManus	...	Sarah Gopnik
Peter Breitmayer	...	Mr. Brandt
Brent Braunschweig	...	Mitch Brandt
David Kang	...	Clive Park
Benjy Portnoe	...	Danny's Reefer Buddy (as Bejamin Portnoe)
Jack Swiler	...	Boy on Bus
Andrew S. Lentz	...	Cursing Boy on Bus
Jon Kaminski Jr.	...	Mike Fagle
Ari Hoptman	...	Arlen Finkle
Alan Mandell	...	Rabbi Marshak

MPAA:

Rated R for language, some sexuality/nudity and brief violence.

Runtime:

105 min | Canada:105 min (Toronto International Film Festival)

Country:

USA | UK | France

Language:

English | Yiddish | Hebrew

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

DTS | Dolby Digital | SDDS

Certification:

USA:R (certificate #45447) | Denmark:11 | UK:15 | Canada:G (Québec) | Australia:M | Canada:PG (British Columbia) | Ireland:15A | Canada:14A (Alberta/Manitoba/Ontario) | Iceland:12 | Finland:K-11

Filming Locations:

Bloomington, Minnesota, USA

Company:

Mike Zoss Productions

Trivia:

The voice of Dick Dutton, the Columbia Record Club employee who harasses Larry on the phone, is supplied by actor Warren Keith. This is the second time he has appeared in a Coen Brothers film playing a character heard only on the phone. He also supplies the voice of Reilly Diefenbach, the GMAC finance officer who calls Jerry Lundegaard in Fargo (1996).

Goofs:

Continuity: Danny's TV has rabbit ears and a UHF antenna on top of the set. He is repeatedly asking Larry to adjust the aerial on the roof. He could not have both connected.

Quotes:

Rabbi Marshak: When the truth is found to be lies, and all the joy within you dies...

Movie Connections:

References Burn After Reading (2008)

Something to laugh at while you're watching, and something to ponder when you're done

A strange comedy from the Coen Brothers - of course that's the kind of comedy they make. This one, though, seems like their least commercially viable film to date, steeped in Jewish traditions that are definitely going to be off-putting for a lot of the audience. It's the most religious movie of the year. Michael Stuhlbarg plays a college professor living in the suburbs of the Twin Cities in the 1960s. He has a pretty normal life - two kids and a wife. His annoying brother has hit hard times and lives with them, though he doesn't find him as annoying as his kids do. Stuhlbarg's life begins to fall apart when his wife announces that she wants to leave him for a family friend (Fred Melamed) and that it is his responsibility to get a lawyer and a rabbi to perform the official ceremony. He never knew there was anything wrong, and he's stuck wondering why things have gone this way and where they will go - which leads him to his rabbis. The two he sees don't really help him much, or at least he doesn't think they do at first. The plot is pretty simple, really, but a lot of the film seems like a puzzle right now - the message at first seems like you have to take whatever comes. Life doesn't always have a specific meaning. But then the film's final moments seem to suggest a very basic morality, that when you do good things, good things will happen, and, much more likely, vice versa. And then you have to fit in the prologue of the film, a Jewish fairytale that doesn't initially seem to have anything to do with the rest of the movie. Much like the Coens' previous film, Burn After Reading, A Serious Man feels like the sort of movie that leaves you a tad disappointed at first, but which could really benefit from a second viewing. Not sure I'll ever consider it one of their better films, but, yeah, it's definitely something to think about.