Filmikaze!

By: Ethan and Joel Coen (directors, writers)

Starring: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed, Sari Lennick, Aaron Wolff, Jessica McManus, Peter Breitmayer, David Kang, Amy Landecker, George Wyner, Michael Tezla, Fyvush Finkel, Adam Arkin

A black comedy set in 1967 and centered on Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern professor who watches his life unravel when his wife prepares to leave him because his inept brother won’t move out of the house.

When you sit down to watch a Coen Brothers film, you carry a certain level of expectation with you. While I can’t claim to adore every movie of theirs I’ve ever seen (It’s true, I am one of an estimated five people on the planet who was unimpressed with No Country For Old Men), I nevertheless have to give them credit for being consistently solid in the quality of their screenwriting and overall tone of their films, and A Serious Man is every bit at home in the Coen Brothers roster.

The film is a modern day retelling of the Biblical book of Job: when unremarkable suburban father Larry Gopnik suddenly finds every conceivable aspect of his life unraveling, he seeks spiritual guidance. As a one-liner, this likely doesn’t sound terribly interesting, but true to the Coen Brothers’ form, A Serious Man is wry and deeply apt, a dark and dreamlike comedy populated by soundly believable characters.

The story uses its 1967 setting to great effect, the impeccable period details serving to ground the film in the familiar while maintaining the sense of the surreal. The characters are compelling even when their starkly honest portrayals makes them a little awkward or painful to watch; you’ve known people like this in your life, will know people like this until you die. The familiarity lends even the smaller roles power, and I can quite honestly say that I’ve rarely seen better acting. Michael Stuhlbarg in the lead was especially fantastic.

The film has many genuinely and deeply funny moments, but its humor is dry and might not appeal to everyone. If you didn’t care for Fargo or O Brother, Where Art Thou, it’s pretty unlikely that this will improve your opinion of the Coen’s work, but give it a chance anyway. Even as someone not closely familiar with the story of Job, the abrupt ending was startling, and powerful enough to genuinely give me pause. This is the sort of movie that is subtle in its innovations, that puts all of its faith in the inherent intelligence of its viewer, and that is so very rare. Obviously I’ve not seen a great deal of movies this year as 2010 has barely begun, but A Serious Man is without a doubt the most brilliant film I’ve watched since I began this site, and in quite some time in general.