What would Toronto be like without a Coen Brothers movie to make things interesting, and along comes their most original and challenging film in quite some time: "A Serious Man". Possibly the filmmakers’ most personal film to date, it may be the toughest sell commercially, but when you win an Oscar, then you can afford to break the rules.
The film begins in 19th century Poland and involves a tale about a husband, wife and and an old man who comes to dinner who is supposedly dead. Is he that ancient evil spirit known as Dibbuk? A symbol of bad luck exemplifies the main part of the film as it jumps to 1967.
The film follows the plight of an ordinary man's search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and F-Troop is on TV. It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor at a quiet mid-western university, has just been informed by his wife Judith that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous colleagues, Sy Ableman (a very dry Fred Melamed) who seems to her a more substantial person than the feckless Larry.
Larry’s unemployable brother Arthur (Richard Kind) is sleeping on the couch, his son Danny has a discipline problem at Hebrew school, and his daughter Sarah is stealing money from his wallet in order to save up for a nose job. While his wife and Sy Ableman blithely make new domestic arrangements, and his brother becomes more and more of a burden, an anonymous hostile letter-writer is trying to sabotage Larry’s chances for tenure at the university. Also, a graduate student seems to be trying to bribe him for a passing grade while at the same time threatening to sue him for defamation. Plus, the beautiful woman next door torments him by sunbathing nude. Struggling for equilibrium, Larry seeks advice from three different rabbis as his world comes crashing around him.
On the one hand, this dark and complex fable is a very Jewish tale about God, or the lack thereof, temptation and the quest for spiritual growth. "A Serious Man" is a film peppered with irony and laced with a deliciously menacing sense of humor. Commercially, the film may have its problems. After all, a film that explores Jewish culture and vernacular with authoritative seriousness, featuring a plethora of relatively unknown actors with not a movie star among them, may not be a hit in Iowa.
Yet if one strips away the Jewish elements of the film, what one has is a story of a man grappling with life letting him down. Thematically, "A Serious Man", as witty as it is, is deeply human, as the Coens explore the broad spectrum of human behavior. The film is beautifully shot by the wonderful Roger Deakins and attention to period detail and use of color to evoke the late 60's is gorgeous. All performances are sublime, especially lead actor Michael Stuhlbarg who captures the essence of pathetic vulnerability.
"A Serious Man" is an original, ferociously comic masterpiece that simmers with wit and tragedy. It is not necessarily mainstream, but that is what makes "A Serious Man" shine.
