Stimulating cinema: A Serious Man

Directors: Joel and Ethan Coen
Year: 2009

Talk about being blind-sided.

Larry Gopnik is really up against it. A college professor who teaches the complexities of theoretical physics, Gopnik (played by Michael Stuhlbarg in an awesome performance) is dealing with problems not entirely of his own making. He is being harassed by a Korean student named Clive (David Kang) who is perplexed as to why he received an "F" and resorts to bribing Larry in an effort to make things good. His daughter (Jessica McManus) seems to have little interest in anything beyond washing her hair and his son (Aaron Wolff) is dividing his time between preparations for his upcoming Bar Mitzvah and sneaking money to buy pot.

As if that weren't enough, Larry is putting up his deadbeat brother Arthur (Richard Kind), who uses his free time to obsessively work on bizarre formulations and calculations of his own device while also finding time for less wholesome pursuits. And the kicker--his wife Judith (Sari Lennick) wants a "get," a formal religious decree of divorce that will allow her to re-marry again in the faith. Her new object of desire is Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed), a smug and mellifluous widower who has all the answers. What exactly Larry has done to set these events in motion isn't clear--he is fundamentally a decent man who is working to achieve tenure at school while trying to keep the antenna on his roof functioning properly so that his son can watch "F Troop." But as these crises congeal into a big gathering storm, Larry finds himself searching for answers and turns to the local rabbis for help.

The first two rabbis aren't particularly helpful, though the respective scenes are very strong and hilarious. Eventually, Larry becomes convinced the only person who can help him is the wise, learned but now virtually unapproachable and untouchable senior rabbi. But with his wife spiraling out of control, debts piling up and his grip on things gradually loosening, it is clear that even if Larry can meet with this rabbi, even that might not be enough.

This is a simple description of the plot, but "A Serious Man" is a complex film that requires a lot from the viewer. For starters, it helps if you have a working knowledge of the Old Testament. On one level, this movie is a re-telling of the Biblical Book of Job. God asks Satan his opinion of Job. Satan felt like Job was a pious man simply because he had acquired a lot of wealth (like Larry, who while not rich by any means is certainly comfortable and won't have to worry about his next paycheck). So as a way to test Job's faith, God allows Satan to try and tempt him. Job loses his possessions (like Larry, who is forced to move out of his house and into a motel after Judith reveals her plans) and undergoes other trials that parallel Larry's struggles in the movie. Job, like Larry then, is a symbol of suffering. Through God, we learn that above any material thing, faith is what matters the most.

Another fascinating element to the movie is a proposition from quantum mechanics called "Schrodinger's Cat paradox." I won't even pretend to understand how this works so the following explanation has been lifted from the Guardian newspaper of London's review of the film. To wit, the paradox involves "the incarceration of a cat in a box with a flask emitting radioactive poison, which, as time passes, may or may not have killed the cat. Until the box is opened and its contents verified, the cat is to all intents and purposes both alive and dead: a quantum system that is a mixture of states." Heady stuff for a movie but it all somehow works. Unlike other films which are weird for the sake of just being weird, "A Serious Man" operates on a few different levels at the same time, forcing us to keep pace with the nimble minds of the directors.

Much also has been written about the "Jewishness" of this particular film. The Coen brothers of course are themselves Jewish, and undoubtedly a lot of this material is pretty familiar turf for them thanks to their upbringings. The non-Jews in the film are extremely limited--Larry's world is one of community and familiarity. And when he mixes with the "goy," such as the Asian student or a whitebread neighbor who is pretty likely a racist, the results are simultaneously awkward and funny. The cast overall is strong--there are numerous good performances, even from bit players--but Stuhlbarg really makes the whole thing work. A Broadway actor who is getting his big-screen break with this role, Stuhlbarg's Larry is many things--naive, endearing, pathetic, heroic, thoughtful, sad and ultimately vindicated. At times, there was a Robin Williams-like quality in Stuhlbarg's Larry; at other times, I couldn't help think of Larry "Bud" Melman from the "David Letterman Show." Like the movie itself, Larry draws you in and makes you care about what happens to him. It's easy to root for him as he undertakes his quest for meaning, dragging the disintegrating pieces of his life behind him like a ball and chain.