A Serious Man
The Coen Brothers are a truly dynamic duo. Wielding wit, charisma, and an invigorating spirit, they deftly create films in which the story often unfolds both dramatically and comically, revealing the dual nature of existence. A Serious Man tells the tragically comic story of Larry Gopnik, a professor whose life, at times both enviable and its opposite, quickly takes several turns for the worse. Joel and Ethan Coen take Larry’s life and unveil the horror lying just beneath the surface.
Larry Gopnik is Jewish, married (kind of), with a handful of rebellious teenaged kids, and he teaches physics at a nearby college. Even his subject of expertise is fraught with varying levels of uncertainty. Larry soon feels as if he has no idea what to do with his life, as his wife leaves him, his son who is supposed to be preparing for Bar Mitzvah makes purchases behind his back, and his Jewish faith is a shambles. Seeking the guidance of Jewish rabbis of increasing levels of rank, he attempts to reconcile the chaos of crisis with the constancy of his religious beliefs. The answers he receives are intentionally vague, seemingly leaving something unsaid, and to him, certainly not very helpful. He even resorts to asking his lawyer for help in what turns into a kind of therapy session – to no avail. The unknown surrounds Larry. In the end, he is forced to come face to face to with simply not having all the answers. Much easier said than done, of course.
Shot as a horror film, the Coens manage to delve deeper and deeper into the psychological horror of Larry’s all-too-normal life. Because he’s Jewish and his life seems rough, it may at times it seem like a page out of the Biblical story of Job, but A Serious Man isn’t about coming full circle. It isn’t about getting everything back that he once lost. Larry loses his grip on reality. His problems are quite normal in many respects, and, ultimately, nothing too special. His wife wants a divorce; his teenagers are healthy and stubborn; his job is secure. He hasn’t lost many things, but he has lost a sense of purpose. He’s lost the stability of stasis. He feels like he’s losing his mind. Larry may get his grip back, but Job lost every familial and material possession he had. Larry has lost a guiding sense of meaning, which more or less ebbs and flows throughout life. We feel secure, then lost, then confused, then stable. Sometimes we don’t know what we feel.
So, in some ways, this film resembles Job’s, but this isn’t a Biblical allegory. To think so would be to miss the point of the film entirely. Each person’s life is a horror story lingering below the veil of reality, and when it rises to the surface we feel the panic of uncertainty, what Camus called coming face to face with the absurdity of existence. When this happens, all feels lost, all seems to be in ruins, though that may not actually be the case. It might. But it might not.
The Coens are brilliant filmmakers. With wonderful casting and a number of fantastic performances from Michael Stuhlbarg (as Larry) and Richard Kind (as his brother), they create a horrifying cinematic experience, in which things aren’t as they seem, and certainty is just out of arm’s reach. At turns both dismal and absurd, this film takes its spot near the top of the Coen Canon, and certainly one of the best films of the year – if not the decade.
Rating: 4/4 Stars
