Wednesday, October 7, 2009

A Serious Man

With a familiar formalist look, the Coen Brothers’ A Serious Man has all their stylistic and substantial trademarks, but it’s also their most mature and personal film yet

Joel and Ethan Coen / USA / 2009 / 105m

What better way to start off A Serious Man, the Coen Brothers’ new mystery of a film, with an enigmatic Yiddish parable shot in a different format than the rest of it? Prior to this scene, the film opens with a French rabbi Rashi quote, “Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you,” which sets the tone perfectly – and which Larry Gopnik, a physics professor living in Minneapolis in 1967, struggles with the entire duration of a serious midlife crisis. His wife tells him that she’s seeing someone else and asks for a traditional ritual divorce, his son is forever on the run from his pot dealer, his brother is being sought by the police for gambling, and his daughter steals from him wallet and doesn’t go to Hebrew school because she needs to do her hair. All the while Jefferson Airplane’s “Somebody to Love” plays over key scenes in Joel and Ethan Coen’s successful attempt to integrate autobiographical bits into a smart, black comedy that is more serious than it gives itself credit.

By loosely adapting the story of Job, The Coen Brothers are asking some weighty questions. Does God exist? Why do bad things happen to good people? What role should religion play in a man’s life? Most of which are not answered, depending on the viewer’s interpretation of the film. Larry is also being blackmailed by Clive Park, a Korean student from his class, to change his grade from an F to a more favorable mark. Clive’s father comes to Larry’s house, stating that he will sue him for defamation if he keeps the envelope of money Clive left of Larry’s desk. The conversation ends with the father whispering, “Accept the mystery,” a motto most viewers should take seriously, although a deeper look into the themes of this work should also be considered.

The Coen’s script is specific to the era. Drugs and rock and roll music were becoming more culturally relevant in the suburbs. Michael Stuhlbarg is pokerfaced in his portrayal of Larry, working from a particularly dense and almost literary screenplay. Carter Burwell’s score is appropriate and Roger Deakins’ lensing is crisp and crafty, aligning flawlessly with the Coen’s editing (under the usual pseudonym Roderick Jaynes). After working with big names in No Country for Old Men and Burn After Reading, The Coen Brothers decide to fill the supporting cast with mostly unknowns, who are all brilliant in their performances nonetheless and there is no reason why they should stay unknown for much longer. A Serious Man has staying power, and the bewildering ending only proves that there is no order in the world and begs the question of why we even ask questions like, “Why me,” to begin with.

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