Starting the new year off right with yet another film from my favorite pair of directorial siblings, A Serious Man might be one of my most personally divisive films from the Coens. I have heard nothing but praise about this movie and upon finding out that it is currently available on Netflix, I was very excited to finally catch up to it. However, while I adore and appreciate the signature, existential style that the Coens infuse into their entire body of work, I could not connect with this one too much. This is most likely because much of the biblical meaning was lost on me due to not being Jewish. I had to look up many explanations for this film afterward and while I do not typically enjoy doing that, I really could not get myself to understand what this was supposed to be about without a bit of closure. Thankfully that did not hurt my viewing experience, however, and despite the biblical references and metaphorical aspects completely flying over my head, I was still able to greatly enjoy this movie knowing that the Coens were in charge.
Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), an amicable and passive man living in the suburbs with his wife Judith (Sari Lennick) and two children, finds his entire life thrown upside down when Judith files for a divorce because of her love for a new man, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed). As Larry's family life begins to unravel, so does his career and personal life and in the matter of a few days, he tries to seek answers but only finds himself getting deeper into trouble. If nothing else, the one thing that Ethan and Joel Coen are known for has to be their deeply metaphorical use of bleak humor and existentialism. This has always been what I enjoy so much about their films: despite how ambiguous an audience member might think a movie they just watched by them is, it probably isn't. A Serious Man definitely continues this trend but its message got vastly lost in my head. I am not Jewish and so a good majority of this film's meaning and references completely went over my head. It is not until after the film that I found out it is based upon the Book of Job and upon further Googling, I was able to make some much-needed connections. Even without knowledge of this Jewish connection, though, I really enjoyed the story of one man's crumbling life and the questioning of his own faith. Luckily, I was also still able to adore this movie and the directorial style that I have come to expect from the Coens. The dark humor throughout this movie and the recurring gags that litter the dialogue are something that Ethan and Joel specialize in and I will forever love this about their screenwriting. The brothers' direction in this movie is just like every other addition to their filmography and I love how quietly anxious everything about this movie was. The audience can tell from the very start that this nearly perfect, Jewish suburbia was going to be disrupted and the buildup to that climax was worth all the wait. This film does wonders with its quirky tone, like if the Safdie brothers had a creatively Wes Anderson mindset. And even though I might not have understood everything about what they were saying with lots of the biblical subtext, it made me do some research and actually expand my knowledge about a different religion and culture: something that not many films can actually cause me to do.
The technical elements making up this movie were beautiful, as to be expected, but the cinematography from Roger Deakins made it that much more special. The use of Dutch angles not only helped to make me feel uneasy about many of Larry's dream sequences but made this film much more interesting as a composition. All of the performances in this film are also fantastic, from the condescending nature of Sy Ableman to the authentic teenage-ness of Larry's son Danny, but the complete standout is Michael Stuhlbarg's Larry Gopnik. The way that Stuhlbarg embodies this serious man's descent is fascinating and through a series of bad days, he is broken down so much that I feel like only he could personify. Through just the stubble that is seen on his face or the lighting making the bags under his eyes even worse, the downfall of Larry is absolutely personified in Stuhlbarg in the best ways possible. It is also so fascinating to see a mild-mannered man like Larry begin to question his faith and question the environment around him when his world is falling in on itself. This was what I enjoyed most about the film and the way that it plays with Jewish eccentricities without making anything appear stereotypical was fantastic. While I personally enjoy the theme of questioning reality and *almost* breaking the fourth wall much better in Burn After Reading and I enjoy the more mature aspects of their direction much more in Inside Llewyn Davis, the fact that the Coens are still able to translate this classic, biblical tale into their own style is undeniably impressive. They can really turn anything into a metaphor. This film might not be my favorite of the brothers but their metaphorical form of storytelling is certainly one of the most impactful I have ever seen from a pair of filmmakers.
A Serious Man is one that I might need to revisit sometime soon. After having to research exactly what was being conveyed in this film, I feel like I need more time to fully appreciate this biblical adaptation. Even though I was a bit lost in what message these filmmakers were attempting to express, there are still so many elements of this film to love, including the performances, motifs, and unexpectedly flawless direction from the Coens.
My Rating: ★★★½
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