My Coen Brothers Top Ten — Vol 10.
Bracketing A Serious Man as my tenth all time favourite film from the Coen Brothers would seem to damn it with faint praise, but I truly adore this film. It just happens that my favourite film directors have created comedic masterpieces such as The Big Lebowski, Fargo and Barton Fink (My personal top 3) as well as gritty, dirty classics such as No Country For Old Men, Miller’s Crossing and The Man Who Wasn’t There, all feature as better films than this, their most personal film, but make no mistake, A Serious Man is a fantastic treat of a film.
Take a serious man, insert him into a whirlpool of events outside of his control yet changing the very fabric of his life. An infatuation. A divorce. A mad uncle and a supposed friend. And now this serious man’s son is stoned into outer space on the most important day of his young life and yet again, The Coen Brothers have only just begun to weave a brilliantly awkward and darkly comedic tale.
The world according to the Coen Brothers
“Blood Simple” in 1984 through to “Hail, Caesar!” in 2016. And 15 beautifully crafted films in between. Spoiler free.medium.com
Continuing with a Coen Brothers theme of starting many of their films with a vague or oblique quotation or reference, A Serious Man commences with a quotation from an 11th Century Rabbi, Rashi:
“Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you”
This sets the tone for this darkly comedic film, which has been described as the Coen Brothers most personal film. The film commences with a prologue: A short, subtitled period tale of a Jewish husband arriving home to his wife with a story to tell. He was helped on his way home by a man, and has subsequently invited this man for tea to thank him. His wife, horrified, claims he died three years ago! Calling him a “Dybbuk” (possessive spirit/soul) of a dead person, the wife stabs the visitor, who leaves bloodied and dying back into the winter night. Dissolving from this Prologue into present day with a loud and rocking rendition of “Somebody to Love” by Jefferson Airplane, another bizarre and surreal Coen Brothers classic is underway.
Our main characters are quickly introduced: “Larry Gopnik” (Michael Stuhlbarg), a College Professor who seemingly has it all, a successful career, two children and loving wife, however it’s evident that his calm exterior is masking deeper issues. His wife “Judith Gopnik” (Sari Lennick) quickly requests a “get”, a ritual Jewish divorce, so she can marry “Sy Ableman” (brilliant performance from Fred Melamed). Both children have prominent roles with “Danny Gopnik” (an excellent Aaron Wolff) and “Sarah Gopnik” (Jessica McManus). One last prominent role falls to Richard Kind as “Uncle Arthur”, unwell and of dubious interests, the role is played brilliantly by Kind.
“Larry Gopnik” (Michael Stuhlbarg) Seen through the ever more frustrated eyes of Larry, Stuhlbarg’s performance is a joy and deserves repeated viewings. As his life begins to unravel in bizarre and amusing fashion, his put upon exterior quickly crumbles as events both at home and work seem to conspire against him. The various characters interweave throughout, but the film always retains Larry’s viewpoint. Often in the eye of the storm with events seemingly overtaking him, he finds a redemption of sorts amongst the madness as he deals with a messy divorce and surreal social encounters with Sy Ableman and his utterly mad Uncle! Larry’s scenes with “Mrs Samsky” (a brilliantly underplayed but mesmerising Amy Landecker) are the film’s real joy as Larry finally sees a different world outside of his closeted and closed off existence.
The film appears to follow a three act structure, with purpose narrative introductions of “The First Rabbi”, “The Second Rabbi” and “Marshak”, however this doesn’t strictly fit with the feel of the film. It’s more of a running commentary on Larry’s slow life descent and ultimate questioning of his religion and beliefs. The life he has depended upon is fast disappearing and whilst in the middle of this is constrained by his religious faith and life values that he holds true and dear to his heart. He is constantly challenging his faith and trying to challenge and adapt his life amidst the madness that surrounds him. On the surface this film appears to be a strictly Jewish religious story and one level this is strictly true. However the challenges to faith and devotion can be morphed to any organised religion. The film’s overt awkward moments (without irony or comedy) centre on racism, with numerous mentions of “Goy” in a derogatory fashion with similarly reverse scenes of racism from an obnoxious American neighbour. It can be viewed as a mix of these themes and a challenge to the orthodoxy, but the main theme is clearly our individual insignificance, at events outside of our control and how without a familiar daily structure our lives can be challenging and fragile.
Nominated for two Oscars (Best Film and Best Original Screenplay) in 2010 this darkly comedic Jewish tale of faith and redemption has a number of stand out scenes, particularly Larry’s awkward dealings with his Uncle Arthur, his salvation (in a sense) with Mrs Samsky and Larry’s son Danny, being heavily stoned at his Bar Mitzvah are very amusing highlights. An obviously personal film for the Directors, this is also a very engaging and funny one at that that has split audiences on it’s black comedy roots and no doubt overt take on the Jewish faith and the fragile nature of religious faith in the 21st Century. Carter Burwell provides an eclectic mix for his musical score with Jefferson Airplane dominating with “Comin’ Back to Me” and “3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds” included alongside the opening title track of “Somebody to Love”. Jimi Hendrix and “Machine Gun” is also included alongside traditional Yiddish music, and a traditional, localised Hebrew style language.
This is a compelling tale as it unravels, strange yet deeply and darkly funny and a favourite for me of the Coen Brothers cinematic cannon.
Thanks for reading. Just for larks as always, and always a human reaction rather than spoilers galore. My three most recently published film articles are linked below or there’s well over 150 blog articles (with 300+ individual film reviews) within my archives from which to choose:
“The Big Lebowski” (1998)
My Coen Brothers Top Ten — Vol 1.medium.com
“The Banshees of Inisherin” (2022)
“She never fecking says hello!”medium.com
“Amsterdam” (2022)
Entertaining conspiracy in the land of the one-eyed King.medium.com