A Serious Man

“ O CERTAINTY - Where art thou ?” ( “Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you” - Rashi) A Serious Man (2009) is a riotous spiritual film re-telling of the Book of JOB. But this JOB is set the suburban spiritual barrens of Minnesota in 1967 by the Coen Bros ( other films included O Brother-Where art thou ?, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, No Country for Old Men & Millers Crossing ). The spiritual terrain is mildly coincident with the early Minnesota youth of the eventual Bob Dylan. Untenured university physics lecturer Larry Gopnick is an “almost JOB”. Like the Biblical JOB ( see below) and despite Larry’s strong belief, hard work and ethics, his family bonds and finances suddenly disintegrate. His tenure application looks likely to follow them. But unlike the almost unique Old Testament JOB who actually gets divine replies and a divine appearance in a dark cloud , poor Larry gets neither a divine counter-response nor meaningful explanation from three rabbis from whom he hilariously seeks counsel. One such counsel - a howler “one size fits all” parable called The Goy’s Teeth – orthodoxly challenges any believer’s claim to reasonably expect some sort of a divine audit. The parable may also imply :” How could we even recognize –much less handle - some sort of tangible message whose only explanation seems to be of extra-human origin ?”. “How can any frail human live with such shocking but possibly ambiguous message ?” By default poor Larry’s sole sympathy comes from his divorce lawyer David Milgram, whose counsel he pays hourly (see below and the 1950s “Milgram” experiments : dissociative tolerance of induced pseudo human suffering ). And merrily sweeping along with Larry’s new chaos as physics instructor is the arrival of Uncertainty Principle and Chaos theories as well as the imminent middle east wars that will trigger a dangerous new path for Israel. Watch closing credits for Coen Bros’ mischievous buried disclaimer that “No Jews were harmed in the making of this film”. The Biblical JOB narrative : The Old Testament Book of Job describes - almost as scientific experiment - the torments allowed by the Old Testament God to be inflicted upon a wealthy true believer. Satan is described to postulate that deprivation of all wealth and comfort would reverse Job’s piety, and the Old Testament God allows such.proposition to be tested. Calamities are then experimentally inflicted ( ? see Milgram above ?) , and most of Job’s jerk friends blame them on Job himself for some alleged new moral blameworthiness ! JOB does not renounce his faith, pleads for some explanation , but eventually "curses the day he was born" like George Bailey in “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946). Answering from a dark cloud the Old Testament God responds saying that there are many things Job does not know, and also rebukes the three jerk friends. The narrative ends with Job restored to health, family and wealth. One analysis is that Job underwent an almost existential epiphany, a “righteous sufferer” now recognizing that his previous piety and comforts were naive, and now better understanding the nature of faith and earthly skillset limits of many of the jerks who were criticizing him for the externally generated torments. Rabbi Reuven Bulka has analyzed Nov 10 2012 Ottawa Citizen : “Try as we might to discern where God is in all this, the answer is the same — perplexity. We do not know. And maybe we are better off not knowing. Job never got an answer to why he went through his agonizing suffering. It was enough for him just to “hear” from God. He then knew that however powerless he was to explain what happened, at least the ultimate meaning of the universe had not disappeared.” Bob Driscoll in Lanark County Ontario Canada January 25/13 . This film is upcoming at the Open Circle

Hardly anybody seemst to pick up on the line with which the (main) film starts- and that is the Schroedinger contradiction, that Larry eplains his students and which later in the film (when Say - in his dreams- hits Larry's head against the black board, exclaiming: "I am a serious man".) This to me is the key to understanding the film: There will always be a small uncertainty in life, that can not be proofed as either right or wrong. Neither religion or science (nor drugs) can clear this uncertainty up.Does it matter? Because in the end we all die. Accidents, tornado or illness - that brigs the only certainty there is. Brilliant film

Wowza, problem solved like it never hpaepend.

The only thing more boring than watching this film is reading the pretentious rubbish people write about it.

A dazzling black comedy in which Larry Gopnick seeks the same answers from Hashem as sought by Sheriff "Ed Thomas Bell" (No Country) and soundalike namesake Knight Antonius Block 50 years before No Country. Not boring if you can recognize great film. 5 stars Dec 8 2011 Ontario Canada

A dazzling black comedy in which Larry Gopnick seeks the same answers from Hashem as sought by Sheriff "Ed Thomas Bell" (No Country) and soundalike namesake Knight Antonius Block 50 years before No Country. Not boring if you can recognize great film. 5 stars Dec 8 2011 Ontario Canada

really didnt expect to like it as mucha s i did its not my type of film

This is a great review for a great movie. No, it is not the most exciting. This movie lacks explosions, violence, and outbursts of vulgarity. However this movie does offer a deep look into the complexities of everyday life: which very often can, and do, become overwhelming. Despite the fact that we are raised with the values of endless optimism, most of the time our life goes in whatever direction we had not planned. Still we are forced to live out the remainder of our days and manage the best we can. In other words, we have the power and freedom to make our lives better, and cannot rely on the false prophet's wisdom, but to the point this movie was made to fail. 1) This movie highly conflicts with our overinflated senses of self. 2) In a culture which is predominantly anti-intellectual, having people look a little deeper than the surface is asking far too much of most. (Not to mention their own fears of what they are and/or are not) 3) There is no happy ending. This movie provides a raw look at the absurdities of modern living. There is no feelgood, happy-go-lucky mood, but instead we are left with only an introspective yearning.Yes, it is not for everybody, but this movie was great because: it was unique, intellectually stimulating, and all the while humorous. (By the way you do not have to be Jewish to enjoy the film. Also if you look closely it can be seen as a paradox to Christian suburbia.)

The Time Out review is spot on. Only thing to add is that it is the details that make this film so great to watch. The Coens are endlessly creative. The lacks of stars makes everything fresh. It is not everyone's cup of tea. But why bother to dump on it.

I was really hoping to enjoy this film and have enjoyed several Coen Brothers films in the past, but was sadly disappointed.