[32], The Wall Street Journal's Joe Morgenstern disliked what he saw as the film's misanthropy, saying that "their caricatures range from dislikable through despicable, with not a smidgeon of humanity to redeem them. When he seeks out the advice of Rabbi Nachtner (George Wyner), he tells Larry the story of the Goy’s Teeth, a rambling parable involving a curious man trying to answer an unanswerable question where the moral seems to be to ignore those kind of questions entirely. The main joke involves a) watching Larry toil in anguish as he tries to understand why an indifferent universe keeps burdening him with problems, and b) Larry’s inability to comprehend the universe’s indifference. Please. Larry goes to smoke pot with his neighbor and soon after finds out his brother is being charged with solicitation and sodomy. Directed by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen. "[26] In an essay in Jung Journal: Culture and Psyche, Steve Zemmelman considers that the prologue may link to the Jefferson Airplane soundtrack motif, reflecting Larry's normal sense of order becoming increasingly disrupted. A SERIOUS MAN This was his tenth film with them. The comedy and tragedy of “A Serious Man” resides in that exasperation. Larry turns to his Jewish faith for consolation. Considerable attention was paid to the setting; it was important to the Coens to find a neighborhood of original-looking suburban rambler homes as they would have appeared in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, in the late 1960s. With Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Sari Lennick, Fred Melamed. An office scene was shot at Normandale Community College in Bloomington. [9] Filming wrapped on November 6, 2008, after 44 days, ahead of schedule and within budget. [41] The screenplay was also nominated for Best Original Screenplay at the 2010 Academy Awards. A decade after its release, ‘A Serious Man’ remains the brothers’ ultimate articulation of their world view. Larry learns Arthur faces charges of solicitation and sodomy. It is set in what I assume to be a Minneapolis suburb of their childhood, a prairie populated by split-level homes with big garages but not enough trees around them. The film attracted a positive critical response, including a Golden Globe Award nomination for Stuhlbarg, a place on both the American Film Institute's and National Board of Review's Top 10 Film Lists of 2009, and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture. The Coen brothers lit a rocket under his career when they cast him in A Serious Man. Like the loose Odyssey frame of O Brother, the Book of Job format of A Serious Man is capacious enough to accommodate almost any indignity. She says Groshkover is dead and the man he invited must be a dybbuk. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2009. Copyright © 2021 Penske Business Media, LLC. It was made for a primarily Jews, and it offers a scathing indictment of … Open auditions for the role of Sarah were also held in June 2008 in Chicago, Illinois. Michael Stuhlbarg in his breakout role as physics professor Larry Gopnik in the Coen Brothers' "A Serious Man." Maybe it’s that the lead character is arguably the most sympathetic Coens … A Serious Man Critics Consensus Blending dark humor with profoundly personal themes, the Coen brothers deliver what might be their most mature -- if not their best -- film to date. (Screenshot from YouTube) Advertisement. Judith empties the couple's bank accounts, leaving Larry penniless, so he enlists the services of a divorce attorney. Criticwire’s New Classic series examines films released in the last ten years that are posed to stand the test of time.“A Serious Man”Dir: Joel and Ethan CoenCriticwire Average: B+. Sign up for our Email Newsletters here. On the whole, remakes tend to suck. I asked where they pulled the line from. "[34] Zemmelman wrote that this kind of viewer response results from the film's lack of narrative resolution: "The film is perplexing and the dialogue reminds the viewer repeatedly that we are in an encounter with the ever-conflictual and the infinitely mysterious. 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[6], Location filming began on September 8, 2008, in Minnesota. The Coen Brothers ’ “ A Serious Man ” opens with a short Yiddish folk tale about a Jewish man (Allen Lewis Rickman) living in an Eastern European shtetl … "[24] The film also holds a score of 82 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on 38 critics, indicating "Universal acclaim". [46] Other nominations for Best Picture include the Broadcast Film Critics Association's 15th Annual Critics' Choice Awards, Boston Society of Film Critics and the Chicago Film Critics Association. Larry's department head compliments him on Danny's Bar Mitzvah and hints that he will receive tenure. The film follows Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor living in a Minnesota suburb in the late-60’s, as his life slowly unravels. He writes, "what can happen when 'the wheel falls off the cart', as Velvel says happened to him on the road that night, or 'when the truth is found to be lies', that lyric from 'Somebody to Love' that serves as bookends for this film. [13], Open auditions for the roles of Danny and Sarah were held on May 4, 2008, at the Sabes Jewish Community Center in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, one of the scheduled shooting locations. The Coens have finished the noughties as America's preeminent filmmakers". The site's critical consensus reads, "Blending dark humor with profoundly personal themes, the Coen brothers deliver what might be their most mature—if not their best—film to date. Larry faces an impending vote on his application for tenure, and his department head lets slip that anonymous letters have urged the committee to deny him. Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern physics teacher, watches his life unravel over multiple sudden incidents. [12] Ethan Coen said that it seemed appropriate to open the film with a Yiddish folk tale, but as the brothers did not know any suitable ones, they wrote their own. [1], A Serious Man received mostly positive reviews from critics, and holds an 90% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes, based on 223 reviews, with an average rating of 7.94/10. While her husband is away on business, Larry calls on his neighbor, Vivienne Samsky, whom he has seen sunbathing naked, and she introduces him to marijuana. Sign up for our Email Newsletters here. Coen brothers' latest film is in the can", "Production Begins on the Coen's A Serious Man", "Coen Bros. On Wet Horses, Kid Stars: It's A Wild West", "Coens cast about to fill three roles in 'A Serious Man, "A Serious Man premiere at the 2009 Toronto International Film Festival", "Oscar-winning Coens head home with "A Serious Man, "The Tempest Speaks: Liminality in A Serious Man", "A Serious Man: The Coen Brothers' Jewish Question", "Revisiting A Serious Man, the most puzzling of the best-picture nominees", "Gods and Victims: "A Serious Man" and "Capitalism: A Love Story, "Four Papers on the Coen Brothers' Film A Serious Man", "A Serious Man Movie - Official Website - Buy Now - Focus Features", "15th Annual Critics' Choice Movie Awards (2010) - Best Picture: The Hurt Locker - Critics' Choice Awards", "Past Award Winners - Boston Society of Film Critics", "Cast of Coen Brothers comedy mull Oscar chances", "Nikola Tesla Award - International Press Academy", The Coen brothers discuss 'A Serious Man', https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=A_Serious_Man&oldid=1001228442, Articles with dead external links from November 2017, Wikipedia articles with WorldCat-VIAF identifiers, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, This page was last edited on 18 January 2021, at 20:12. Larry's brother, Arthur, sleeps on the couch and spends his free time filling a notebook with what he calls a "probability map of the universe". He has the money, but it is hidden in a transistor radio that was confiscated by his teacher. Ethan and Joel Coen have always been interested in morality as a theme, and A Serious Man is no exception, with Larry (played by stage actor Stuhlbarg in an excellent performance) dealing with the large and small indignities of life while looking to religion for answers, even though he fails to find them. ", David Tollerton wrote, "the more substantial connection between A Serious Man and the Book of Job—the connection that reaches deeper—is their similarly absurd presentations of the human struggle with anguish and the divine. The Coen Brothers’ “A Serious Man” opens with a short Yiddish folk tale about a Jewish man (Allen Lewis Rickman) living in an Eastern European shtetl who returns home to his wife (Yelena Shmulenson) to tell her that he has invited over a Reb Groshkover (Fyvush Finkel) for soup. [37], A Serious Man was later voted the 82nd greatest film since 2000 in a BBC international critics' poll. [52], "Serious Man" redirects here. “A Serious Man” is rated R (Under 17 requires accompanying parent or adult guardian). Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you. Nevertheless, the Coens construct “A Serious Man” as its own unique parable, a simple story ostensibly with an instructive lesson, but if there’s a lesson in “A Serious Man,” it’s that the world is devoid of lessons entirely, and that the only thing we can try to do is to follow the senior Rabbi Marshak’s instruction to Larry’s pot-smoking, Jefferson Airplane-listening son (Aaron Wolff): “Be a good boy.”. And yet there’s something sweet and even a little heartening about the movie, too. [38], A Serious Man received numerous awards and nominations,[39][40] mostly within for Best Picture, Screenplay, Cast, and Cinematography. Why does this happen? The husband believe that he and his wife are ruined because they will be charged with murder; on the other hand, the wife believes they have rid their house of evil. When “Groshkover” enters their home, the wife quickly stabs him with an icepick, and though he doesn’t initially seem to have a wound, he begins to bleed just before he exits into a snowy night. For the Slightly Stoopid song, see, Jung Journal: Culture & Psyche, First Edition, Taylor & Francis Group, Philadelphia, 2006, p.29, Journal of Religion & Film Vol 15, First Edition, University of Nebraska Omaha, Nebraska, 2012, p10, Top of the World (Slightly Stoopid album), "Coen brothers to get 'Serious' in Minnesota", "In Twin Cities, Coen brothers shoot from heart", "Coen brothers will use St. Olaf for movie", "It's a wrap! A Serious Man opens with a quote allegedly from Rashi. After the seriously great "No Country for Old Men," the Coen brothers have made the not greatly serious "A Serious Man," which bears every mark of a labor of love. Joel and Ethan Coen make movies like nobody else's, but even by their standards A Serious Man is in a class by itself: a complete original that's one of the brothers' best. His wife, Judith, tells him that she needs a get so she can marry widower Sy Ableman, with whom she has fallen in love. "[35], Todd McCarthy said, "A Serious Man is the kind of picture you get to make after you've won an Oscar. It would be easy, and ultimately foolish, to craft a “serious” drama out of this idea, but only the Coens would take it and conceive a brilliant pitch-black comedy. "A Serious Man" Movie Review -- The Coen brothers make two kinds of movies.. Meanwhile, their son Danny owes twenty dollars to an intimidating Hebrew school classmate for marijuana. Their revisionist… I mentioned to the brothers that while Rashi was a prolific commentator on Talmud and Tanach, he is not exactly a figure oft quoted. Larry is unharmed, but Sy dies. [25], Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times rated the film four out of four stars. Showing all 36 items. Though seeking meaning and answers amidst his turmoils, he seems to keep sinking. That gave them the artistic liberty to go another route and make a very intelligent, personal movie in 2009, A Serious Man. [5] The film's look is partly based on the Brad Zellar book Suburban World: The Norling Photographs, a collection of photographs of Bloomington in the 1950s and 60s. Larry gets into a car accident and then later receives a maddening call from the Columbia record club asking him for money. Joel and Ethan Coen were awarded Best Original Screenplay at the 2009 National Board of Review Awards and the 2010 National Society of Film Critics Awards.