A Serious Man

An Existential Tragicomedy of the Jewish Faith from the Coen Brothers

The Coen Brother's latest film, A Serious Man is no exception from the hauntingly existential nature of their body of cinematic work. A Serious man is at its core an Existential Tragicomedy of the Jewish Faith. Joel and Ethan Coen give a myriad of other thematic slaps in the face, from dogmatic absurdity, adultery and parenting, Anti-Semitism, Rock and Roll, as well as their prevalent cloud of ganja smoke elevating character development.

A Serious Man centers on the slow paced progression of religious and marital angst in a Jewish Physics Professor, Larry Gopnik, in the suburban hollows of Minnesota. Experienced through the refreshingly subtle performance of Michael Stuhlbarg, Gopnik's life is yanked apart and shredded with exaggerated torture. Everyone from his wife, kids, rabbi, boss, neighbor, brother and doctor tugs on a thread from Gopnik's unraveling existence.

It is familiar territory for the Coen brothers who have unraveled the existence of a number of their characters in tortuous fashion. For instance, Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins) in The Hudsucker Proxy, Barton Fink (John Turturro) in Barton Fink, Ed Crane (Billy Bob Thornton) in The Man Who Wasn't There, Jeff Lebowski (Jeff Bridges) in The Big Lebowski, or Sheriff Ed Tom Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) in No Country for Old Men. Perhaps where Larry Gopnik in A Serious Man differs is that our protagonist is not redeemed by his actions in the end, nor does he return to a state of normalcy, but does simply nothing to spice up and or improve his existence.