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Plot: The movie opens with an introductory ghost story set in Poland that portends ill events. In the main film, Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is a physics professor whose wife Sarah (Judith McManus) wants to divorce him, his son is doing drugs, and who seems to have multitudinous problems all at once. Periodically he visits his Rabbis for advice, and they are not very helpful. The movie ends very abruptly without resolving most plot lines.
Review: This is a black comedy, which means it has farcical almost sitcom situations, and the characters are exaggerated, but there are not real jokes. In this type of movie the strangeness of the characters means that the emotions of the characters is disconnected, and that happens here. Still I laughed a number of times.
Larry Gopnik is a serious man because he is trying to do the right thing as he learned in Jewish school and as his parents and Rabbi's taught him. Nonetheless, bad things just keep happening, perhaps because his parents or grandparents got jinxed by a ghost back in Poland.
The best part of this movie is that it is trying to grapple with big issues like the meaning of life. It does that without any preachy sermons, and I don't think that it leads one to any conclusions except to go on living as best you can.
A Serious Man is a very Jewish movie, and people with a Jewish background would probably identify more.
The movie has a non-ending, where his son has a Bar Mitvah, and the film maker hints bad things start happening to him. Larry's plot lines are left in the air for the audience to guess at. In a real black comedy, there is a happy ending. This movie has a Zen-like non-ending perhaps reflecting the hopelessness of the modern experience.
Cast: Michael Stulhbarg, Judith Barg
Written and directed by: Ethan and Joel Coen
Rating: 2.5 flasks; worthy of two stars, but and extra half because of its serious topics
More: There was a story about a dentist who found a message from God engraved on one of his patients teeth -- written in Hebrew on the back of his front teeth. This is a memorable story because we wonder what it means, and because Rabbi Nachtner (George Wyner) tells the story well. The story shows something about how religion talks about God, but does not give specific answers to our problems. Wife Jenny liked it too.
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Plot: The movie opens with an introductory ghost story set in Poland that portends ill events. In the main film, Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is a physics professor whose wife Sarah (Judith McManus) wants to divorce him, his son is doing drugs, and who seems to have multitudinous problems all at once. Periodically he visits his Rabbis for advice, and they are not very helpful. The movie ends very abruptly without resolving most plot lines.
Review: This is a black comedy, which means it has farcical almost sitcom situations, and the characters are exaggerated, but there are not real jokes. In this type of movie the strangeness of the characters means that the emotions of the characters is disconnected, and that happens here. Still I laughed a number of times.
Larry Gopnik is a serious man because he is trying to do the right thing as he learned in Jewish school and as his parents and Rabbi's taught him. Nonetheless, bad things just keep happening, perhaps because his parents or grandparents got jinxed by a ghost back in Poland.
The best part of this movie is that it is trying to grapple with big issues like the meaning of life. It does that without any preachy sermons, and I don't think that it leads one to any conclusions except to go on living as best you can.
A Serious Man is a very Jewish movie, and people with a Jewish background would probably identify more.
The movie has a non-ending, where his son has a Bar Mitvah, and the film maker hints bad things start happening to him. Larry's plot lines are left in the air for the audience to guess at. In a real black comedy, there is a happy ending. This movie has a Zen-like non-ending perhaps reflecting the hopelessness of the modern experience.
Cast: Michael Stulhbarg, Judith Barg
Written and directed by: Ethan and Joel Coen
Rating: 2.5 flasks; worthy of two stars, but and extra half because of its serious topics
More: There was a story about a dentist who found a message from God engraved on one of his patients teeth -- written in Hebrew on the back of his front teeth. This is a memorable story because we wonder what it means, and because Rabbi Nachtner (George Wyner) tells the story well. The story shows something about how religion talks about God, but does not give specific answers to our problems. Wife Jenny liked it too.
