2009 Oscar Nominees - A Serious Man  
| Knowing there is a new film coming out directed by the Coen Brothers (No Country for Old Men, Fargo, and The Big Lebowski) is all I need to go see it. Certain directors (Scorsese, Tarantino, Mann, Spielberg, and P.T. Anderson) have earned my trust where I don't need to see a trailer or read a synopsis; I'm going to see the movie. The Coen Brothers were close but it wasn't until No Country, and Burn After Reading where I thought, love or hate, the Coens are directors that are worth watching just to see what they come up with.
This is how I went into A Serious Man, the new Coen's (can't tell whether it's comedy or drama) film. Only knowing that it revolved around a Jewish professor Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), whose life starts going into a downward spiral. Well, unfortunately that’s basically all the movie is. An ordinary man being hit with bad news after bad news until it feels like it can't get any worse, then it seems he has come to grips with it, and then it gets worse, and credits.
Now that's not given the film the credit it deserves. There are some great scenes including the opening Jewish fable, any scene with Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed) the man whose Gupnik's wife is leaving him for, conversations with Larry's divorce lawyer (Adam Arkin), and the story told by Rabbi Nachtner (Georgy Wyner) to explain why Larry's life is going the way it is. These individually are great black comic pieces in an otherwise downer of a film.
If you love how the Coens make films, than you will still see many things that make their films so great. How one scene can go from having you laughing to being very disturbed the next. Amazing supporting characters including the ones mentioned above as well as the first rabbi’s replacement, Larry’s racist neighbour, Larry’s awkward brother, and some of his son’s friends. Great tension created by misdirection (a car crash scene that happens, but not the way it looks at first), and classic, comic dialogue.
But the film just never amounts to anything. I actually enjoyed the first hour quite a bit, with its dark humour, and great Coen characters. However, there is no turning point, no moment that changes the course of the film. And I think that's the point, that there is no moment where Larry finally stands up to the people pushing him around, there is no great moment of understanding or resonance, no moment of "Oh I get it, that's what it's about." Nope, it’s just a continuous tale of a man whose life just keeps getting worse, and everywhere he looks for answers is just another dead end. Near the end of the film, it seems he comes to a point where he realizes only he can change his own course, and has to stop looking for answers within his religion or from his Rabbi's, and maybe then we think ok, even though it is not spelled out (and whatever is in a Coen's tale), but then we are hit with a "just kidding" life is going to crap out no matter what. With any moment of hope or happiness, the next is more devastating than the last thing he was getting over.
I get the kind of film the Coens wanted to make, but although I remained curious throughout, I never become anything more than an interested by-stander slowly losing his interest. The film never grabbed me, never brought me into its world until I was fully involved, and again maybe that's the point, but it started becoming more a chore than an experience.
I should mention that this film is very Jewish, and what I mean by that is that all the characters are pretty much Jewish, and a lot of the situations allude to Jewish events. There are a lot of references to Jewish culture and religion including bar mitzvah’s, fables, lots of Hebrew language, hell there are three chapters in the film that are separated by Rabbi’s (First Rabbi, Second Rabbi, Marshak). As someone who is not well versed in the Jewish religion or culture, I’m sure I missed out on a lot of jokes, and inside references. I still got a lot, but I feel someone who was brought up in a Jewish household, or is close friends with someone of Jewish descent may get more out of the film than I did. This is another reason why the film is the Coen’s most personal as it coincides with their lives growing up, unfortunately because it is so specific, it does lose a bit of its universality.
The Coens haven’t lost me yet, they still make some of the most interesting, and unique films out there. And even though I didn’t love it, this is another in their long filmography that you should seek out sooner or later.
| |
