Thus says Larry Gopnik, a smart, middle-aged Jewish physics teacher on the edge of hysteria. Everything in his life is slowly imploding, and he doesn’t know why. Does his future hold any hope at all? Is it bad luck that plagues him, or the judgment of the sovereign God? This is the premise behind the Coen brothers’ latest dark drama, “A Serious Man.”
First of all, if you haven’t seen the trailer for this film, be sure to do so (you can watch in on the right column). You would be hard-pressed to find a movie trailer as wonderfully creative as this one, but it only gives you a taste of this deep film.
A film is first of all a sum of its parts, and this film is built from the bottom up with some amazing material. Director of photography Roger Deakins has been responsible for the look of such films as “The Shawshank Redemption,” “Fargo,” and “The Reader.” His vision effortlessly magnifies the Coen Brothers’ dark, moody screenplay. The editing is stupendous, with cuts placed exactly where and when they are needed to add humor, awkwardness, or irony to each scene. The actors are well chosen for their roles, and the Coens perceptively direct them with finesse in order to capture their vision.
But that is just the surface of this film — the technicalities. While each of these aspects are important, the real potency of “A Serious Man” is the world the Coens build in their script. The environment in which Larry finds himself is utterly poisonous, sapping the joy out of everything he holds dear. Indeed, every aspect of Larry’s life is deplorable. His wife hardly speaks to him, but when she does, she attacks him mercilessly. His children don’t talk to him. His brother Arthur is living on his couch indefinitely, and Larry is being criticized on account of one of his student’s failing grade.
Chance alone could not have brought all these things upon Larry so swiftly and heartlessly. As a practicing Jew, he understands that there must be a deeper meaning behind his situation. His God and Savior has apparently cursed him, and Larry doesn’t know why. As he struggles with his faith and seeks out answers from rabbi after rabbi, his world continues to fall apart with no relief in sight.
With clarity and urgency, the Coen brothers use this story as a philosophical platform to ask their audience important questions. For what reason would the Father “torment” his children, his beloved? Is God best signified by love, or by wrath? Does He deal out punishment personally, or do we humans inflict it upon ourselves? And how long does God expect one’s faith to hold before it snaps?
Interestingly, the story of Larry’s fight for sanity closely follows the book of Job’s storyline, where God allowed his faithful servant to be tested in an unpleasant and seemingly unfair morality experiment of sorts.
“A Serious Man” is a pitch-perfect film, built on a solid script and directed by masters of the cinema art. Every performance is spot-on and every image is chockfull of that tell-tale Coen quirk. Every character is interesting, even down to the extras in the background. Every metaphor present is used and reused with such attention that the pieces can hardly be separated from the narrative whole.
The Coen Brothers pride themselves on their unconventional stories and constant upheaval of clichés time and again, proving their unique style viable. I greatly disliked The Coen’s last film “Burn After Reading,” but “A Serious Man” attests to the lasting merit of these great auteurs. I definitely recommend this multi-layered film, and I look forward to their future movie endeavors.
