Gail sees a movie: A Serious Man

The first image in A Serious Man is a quote from Rashi ^[1]: “Accept with simplicity everything that happens to you.” At the end of the credits, among the usual boilerplate, we see that “No Jews were harmed in the making of this motion picture.” In between is one of the most riveting films I have seen this year.

The film begins with an eight-minute subtitled scene entirely in Yiddish. This prologue about a visit from a mysterious and possibly evil stranger (the marvelous Fyvush Finkel) foreshadows the religious and philosophical inquiry that is to follow.  The rest of the film takes place in 1967 Minnesota, and revolves around Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) and his family. Gopnik has lots of tsuris. His son Danny (Aaron Wolff) is more interested in smoking pot and listening to the Jefferson Airplane than in studying for his bar mitzvah. His daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus) is stealing money to get a nose job. His wife Judith (Sari Lennick) wants him to move out so her new flame Sy (Fred Melamed) can move in. Brother Arthur (Richard Kind) lives with Larry, and has no intention of leaving. This modern day Job has other problems too. His scary gentile neighbors want to build a shed on his property. His chances of tenure are being threatened. An Asian student who failed his class is trying to bribe and blackmail him. Larry tries to find the reasons for his suffering and possible solutions. His quest takes him to see three rabbis and his divorce lawyer (Adam Arkin).

Writers/directors Ethan and Joel Coen have populated this film with talented, but not big name, actors. Broadway veteran Michael Stuhlbarg makes Larry likeable and sympathetic, despite his passivity when being steamrolled by his wife and kids. When Larry does not stand up to his wife when she wants him to leave their home, Stuhlbarg makes Larry’s acquiescence seem more good-hearted than weak. Fred Melamed gives the funniest performance in the film. His Sy Ableman is shameless as he hugs Larry and tells him to move to a hotel, and then laughs at the idea that there might be another solution. Sy has a “new age” sensibility and Melamed plays him with a seriousness that is hilarious. Comic actor Richard Kind made me laugh and cry as troubled Uncle Arthur. Arthur has a cyst on his back, and Kind walks as if Arthur has the weight of the world on his shoulders.  He is grateful to his brother but resents him as well.

The film has many moments that had just enough truth in them to make me squirm with discomfort while laughing.  The scenes in the Hebrew school class and school bus will seem uncomfortably familiar to some, as the class writes notes, listens to music and deals with bullies. Sy Ableman and his advice seem right at home in 1967, as do the dilemmas of the Gopnik family. Those familiar with Judaism and Jewish culture will enjoy all of the references. The film does not explain most of them. But even if you do not fully get the jokes and situations, the themes are universal.

A Serious Man is both thought provoking and, for a Coen brothers film, strangely moving. Larry struggles to find meaning and the reasons why God inflicts pain on him, and the answers, although sometimes comic, are difficult to come by. Maybe there are no answers. As a blackmailer tells Larry, “Please, accept the mystery.” The film’s treatment of Jewish issues has angered some groups ^[2].  After the preview screening I attended, the lobby was filled with people debating the meaning  of the film and the issues it raised.  I am still thinking and talking about it.  In one of my favorite scenes, Larry stands in a classroom before a huge blackboard completely covered with equations. He is trying to explain the Uncertainty Principle. He tells the students that, “It proves we can’t ever really know what’s going on. So it shouldn’t bother you, not being able to figure anything out. Although you will be responsible for this on the midterm.” The very powerful end of the film suggests this may be true in other ways.

This film is vastly different from recent Hollywood comedies and different from the Coen brothers’ last two interesting efforts, Burn After Reading ^[3]and No Country for Old Men. ^[4]  It left me asking many questions, including how something like this could come out of Hollywood.  In a film about faith and lack of faith, the Coen brothers place their faith in the intelligence of the audience.

A Serious Man.  Directed by Ethan Coen and Joel Coen. Michael Stuhlbarg (Larry Gopnik), Richard Kind (Uncle Arthur), Fred Melamed (Sy Ableman), Sari Lennick (Judith Gopnik), Aaron Wolff(Danny Gopnik), Jessica McManus(Sarah Gopnik), Fyvush Finkel,(Dybbuk?) and Adam Arkin (Divorce Lawyer).  Focus Features, 2009.

 

Gail sees a movie appears every Wednesday.