If you haven't seen A Serious Man, prepare yourself for a bleak dark comedy. Watching this film is like reading the Book of Job in the Old Testament while flogging yourself with a small barbed whip.Everything that possibly could go wrong to the protagonist Larry Gopnik does, everything except boils and leprosy. Poor Larry is a decent guy, but has the same luck I do - none. Hashem (God) to all you goys - should just strike him down with a lightning bolt. But after watching this film, you'll wish he struck you down and saved you some time.
This is a strange film. Right from the start you are transported to Poland and the possibility of a man being a 'dybbuk' - which is basically a Jewish zombie, or evil spirit. The man isn't a dybbuk and gets killed, but why the hell this was included in the film - I can't figure out. Oh, I get it - a future ancestor will be haunted. The Coen brothers usually put out some great films including one of my favorites The Big Lebowski. I also loved Fargo, and No Country For Old Men, films with great characters and unique plots, but unlike these films A Serious Man is a big let down.
Besides tracking a man's desperate and bleak existence we encounter hateful characters - his bitchy wife, selfish kids, a brother with a cyst which drains so much it could fill up the Dead Sea, and neighbors who should be living in Hammonton, or Berlin circa 1938. All the characters are horrid creatures, as I watched this movie I prayed for a twist in the plot and Javier Bardem would show up with his dutchboy haircut and kill them all, or they'd be put into a woodchipper, or a golem would get them, but no such luck. I told you I have bad luck - I wonder why? Maybe I had an ancestor that killed a leprechaun. The film is drawn out and you'll probably be checking your watch frequently, or hitting the fast forward button. Additionally, unless you are a Jewish male, or the Coen brothers reminiscing, or in a rabbinical school this film will try your patience with its referrences to Yiddish and Hebrew concepts and shibboleths. On the up side, there are some very funny scenes, but not enough to justify wasting over 100 minutes.
Why does God put Larry through so many troubles? Would God really care? Should we? Maybe God wasn't involved at all? People have been trying to make meaning out of our existence and the meaning of suffering for thousands of years, this film leaves those questions unanswered. Just like the Book of Job - there are no answers just more questions. Overall I would place this film way below the other films by the great Coen Brothers, maybe even in Gehenna. Mazel tov!
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