Movie mini-review: A Serious Man

 

I had planned on writing this for an upcoming post I'll have this weekend about the Oscar's, but it ran long and I'm giving it a space of its own.  Warning: spoilers follow, and the review will only make sense to people who saw the movie. 

 

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A Serious Man has no discernible plot, beats down its protagonist with an endless series of unlucky events, and ends without answering any of the questions it raises or resolving any of the problems it presents.

 

That’s deliberate, because the movie is about the inadequacy of religious faith, both as a source of comfort and as a guide for how to act.  Sometimes faith even makes things worse by adding to our bewilderment at precisely those moments when we need clarity and purpose.

 

In the movie's best scene, Larry asks the Second Rabbi to explain the meaning behind his suffering.  The Rabbi is vague and unhelpful, and clearly has nothing to offer.  Larry asks in frustration, "Why does Hashem make us field the questions if He doesn't provide us the answers?"

 

But of course, nobody is making him field anything: Larry, like a lot of us, asks these questions about meaning because he wants to understand the overt disorder in his life by finding the hidden order beneath it.

 

It’s no surprise that he finds none, for the Coen brothers are challenging the assumptions underlying the questions themselves.  What makes you think there will be order on the other side of the chaos, solace after the tragedy, relief after the struggle, justice after the iniquity?  Your faith tells you there will be, but it can’t back up the claim, much less serve as a compass to get you home when you're lost. 

 

Like Larry’s quest for meaning, I searched in vain for a hopeful message beneath the relentless nihilism of the movie.  But just because my search came up empty doesn’t mean it isn’t there somewhere.   Thematic ambiguity is a Coen staple. 

 

And just like every other Coen movie, this one explores simultaneity and chance events: the two car crashes, the phone ringing with bad news at the very moment he changes the exam grade, etc..  I don't know what to read into it, but I thought I'd mention it.

 

Anyway, the movie is brilliantly done and punctuated by moments of hilarity, but it’s also tough to stomach.  An unscientific survey of my friends reveals that opinions about A Serious Man are highly polarized.  Some thought it was too much of a downer, or found it pointless.

 

Well, I loved it.  I loved especially that the Coen brothers didn’t cheat, didn’t take the easy way out, didn’t conclude with a cute scene that resolves everything or that trivializes the unrelenting agony experienced by the characters.  It’s the best movie I’ve seen in the past year.

 

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Here is Ebert's favorable review, here is Denby's unfavorable review.  Here is a review I really liked from Ryland Walker Knight, who writes that the movie is "the Book of Job by way of Kafka’s The Trial with a dash of Jefferson Airplane’s 'Somebody To Love' to lighten things up." 

Comments

[e jaffe]

"Like Larry’s quest for meaning, I searched in vain for a hopeful message beneath the relentless nihilism of the movie." I agree with your take that the Coens are exposing the limitations of religion by offering questions without answers, but I also interpreted that as a sign of hopefulness -- an indication that if we only stopped worrying so much about answers then we might enjoy ourselves a bit more.

[Brayan]

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