Roman Catholics may think they've got it tough with their guilt and penance and redemption but let's be honest: they've got nothing on the Jews. Catholics, after all, are just saved, but the Jews? The Jews are chosen and the god that did the choosing is a fickle one indeed, one content to run his Chosen People through all sorts of trials without offering an ounce of explanation for anything that may be going on.
Their most Jewish film by far, and very likely their most personal and autobiographical as well, A Serious Man stars Michael Stuhlbarg as Larry Gopnik, a Jew with a problem. A Jew with many problems, actually, or at least one with many problems soon to arrive in rapid succession, seemingly out of nowhere. Poor Larry.
It is 1967 and Larry Gopnik seems to be living the American dream. He is living the suburban lifestyle with his wife and two children and the promise of tenure at his university teaching position just around the corner. All seems to be going well for Larry with the sole exception being that his socially awkward brother - whose sole distinguishing feature is a large, weeping cyst on the back of his neck - is sleeping on his couch and dominating his bathroom. But then he comes home one day and his wife tells him she wants a divorce and wants it soon. She's already got a new boyfriend and they want to get married. And then there's the student trying to bribe him to reverse a failing grade. And his son trying to simultaneously study for his bar mitzvah while avoiding being beaten by the drug dealer he owes money to. And the next door neighbor slowly encroaching on to his property. And the daughter who steals money from his wallet. Maybe things aren't so good after all.
The story of a good - if somewhat weak and easily led - man trying to make sense of a series of seemingly inexplicable events, A Serious Man is - on one level - a breakdown of the Jewish psyche, an exploration of what it was like to grow up Jewish in the midwest in the late sixties, of what it's like to grow up Jewish at all trying to find meaning in a world while following a god who allowed massive numbers of his chosen people to be slaughtered less than thirty years before. This is the Coen's expose on their own self image, a portrait of a man continually trod upon and failed by the people who are meant to provide spiritual leadership and guidance.
But more than that - much more than that - it is also a hugely entertaining black comedy, arguably their sharpest and funniest piece of writing since The Big Lebowski. This is brilliantly funny, brilliantly quotable stuff, all of it shot through with a biting black edge backed up by a surprisingly bleak conclusion. This is the sort of film that could only have come from the Coen's and when taken in conjunction with No Country For Old Men and Burn After Reading provides a pretty compelling argument that the duo have reached a new career peak, a new period of brilliance and diversity in their work.
Their most Jewish film by far, and very likely their most personal and autobiographical as well, A Serious Man stars Michael Stuhlbarg as Larry Gopnik, a Jew with a problem. A Jew with many problems, actually, or at least one with many problems soon to arrive in rapid succession, seemingly out of nowhere. Poor Larry.
It is 1967 and Larry Gopnik seems to be living the American dream. He is living the suburban lifestyle with his wife and two children and the promise of tenure at his university teaching position just around the corner. All seems to be going well for Larry with the sole exception being that his socially awkward brother - whose sole distinguishing feature is a large, weeping cyst on the back of his neck - is sleeping on his couch and dominating his bathroom. But then he comes home one day and his wife tells him she wants a divorce and wants it soon. She's already got a new boyfriend and they want to get married. And then there's the student trying to bribe him to reverse a failing grade. And his son trying to simultaneously study for his bar mitzvah while avoiding being beaten by the drug dealer he owes money to. And the next door neighbor slowly encroaching on to his property. And the daughter who steals money from his wallet. Maybe things aren't so good after all.
The story of a good - if somewhat weak and easily led - man trying to make sense of a series of seemingly inexplicable events, A Serious Man is - on one level - a breakdown of the Jewish psyche, an exploration of what it was like to grow up Jewish in the midwest in the late sixties, of what it's like to grow up Jewish at all trying to find meaning in a world while following a god who allowed massive numbers of his chosen people to be slaughtered less than thirty years before. This is the Coen's expose on their own self image, a portrait of a man continually trod upon and failed by the people who are meant to provide spiritual leadership and guidance.
But more than that - much more than that - it is also a hugely entertaining black comedy, arguably their sharpest and funniest piece of writing since The Big Lebowski. This is brilliantly funny, brilliantly quotable stuff, all of it shot through with a biting black edge backed up by a surprisingly bleak conclusion. This is the sort of film that could only have come from the Coen's and when taken in conjunction with No Country For Old Men and Burn After Reading provides a pretty compelling argument that the duo have reached a new career peak, a new period of brilliance and diversity in their work.