A Serious Man (Coen Brothers)

It is one of the Coen brothers best efforts in my opinion. The ending is a perfect summation of the concept that you need to appreciate even what you perceive as your problems, because they are all a part of life and they pale in comparison to the alternative which is coming for the lead character.

The film is a very close study of a microcosm of American culture which is often shoved aside by the Woody Allen's of the world, who have appropriated it in the name of New York City regionalism. The sense of fatalism is endemic in the culture the Coen brothers are describing and the anecdote at the beginning of the film serves as a kind of explanation for this. I think the level of detail and the examination of underlying attitudes in the characters is masterful in this film. I think this too is underlined by the use of unknown actors, which are precisely chosen for their roles.

This is not one of their weakest efforts, it is one of their best, and the people who dislike it probably went in expecting something different. The Coen brothers films sometimes suffer from one dimensional caricatures. They have no real dramatic arc. (As in Burn After Reading). That can be entertaining for some. For myself that is boring.

Take another look at the end of the film, and think about it.
 
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Batutta said:
I understood what they were doing in retelling the story of Job.
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This fact eluded me until I just googled it. So I watched it with no preconceived notions and I wasn't holding it to any standards.

I'm a huge Coen brothers fan. The only film you listed I didn't care for was "No Country." The only reason I have anything against it is because I do the same thing you're doing, I'm comparing the film to another film. See, I thought "There Will Be Blood" was the superior film and it has effected my opinion of "No Country" over time. But let's both let go of the concept of other films.

You're not going to convince me "A Serious Man" is a horrible film. Likewise I won't be able to convince you it is a great film. But I will tell you that the Coen brothers' other films have no effect on the one film itself. Except that it twisted your sense of anticipation and now you're not allowing your favorite filmmakers to fall out the formula you think they owe you.
 
Knoxworth said:
You're not going to convince me "A Serious Man" is a horrible film. Likewise I won't be able to convince you it is a great film. But I will tell you that the Coen brothers' other films have no effect on the one film itself. Except that it twisted your sense of anticipation and now you're not allowing your favorite filmmakers to fall out the formula you think they owe you.
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No. A film either works for me or it doesn't. I had a fairly good idea what this was going to be, and it was close to that, but its failure to work with me had nothing to do with my expectations. The Coen brothers do not have that rigid a formula. I can understand somebody liking something I don't. But you said you thought it was one of their best films, which considering their filmography is not something I can swallow. On a very basic what's going to happen next level I was not engaged by this story. I could see the point. But I felt nothing.
 
yoclay said:
It is one of the Coen brothers best efforts in my opinion. The ending is a perfect summation of the concept that you need to appreciate even what you perceive as your problems, because they are all a part of life and they pale in comparison to the alternative which is coming for the lead character.

Take another look at the end of the film, and think about it.
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I think you would have to be a moron to see a tornado coming at you and not realize what the point of the film is. I get it. I just was not engaged by anything that occurred on a dramatic level throughout the entire film. The story itself bored me. The thematic symbolism came through clear as a bell, but that's because the Coen's are masterful filmmakers.
 
The great thing about having opinions is that you can have yours and I can have mine. The world won't explode if ours don't agree with each other.
 
Knoxworth said:
The great thing about having opinions is that you can have yours and I can have mine. The world won't explode if ours don't agree with each other.
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Hold on a second, I was about to respond but heard a distant rumbling sound.
 
I thoroughly enjoyed the film. That being said, I can also understand why other people would be put off by it. It's pretty long, it's slow moving, the antagonist isn't PARTICULARLY interesting a person, and the structure/ending isn't typical for most movies. It actually took me a second, maybe even third, viewing to be able to fully appreciate the film (although I find that's necessary for me with a lot of Coen brothers movies.)

I especially liked the constantly repeated "I haven't done anything" line throughout the film. This was a very ambitious and powerful film for me, and very few living directors would be able to pull it off. Just another notch in the Coen's already impressive filmography.
 
I guess I'm an Arc-plot junkie, but I have no idea what the point of this story was. The protag/antag?... whatever he was, never developed nor advanced, nothing was resolved... it was cute but pointless. The sub-plots of wife cheating w/ Sy, the Rabbi's, the neighbor propertyline despute, the Korean student bribe, the sexy cougar neighbor, the bully chasing his kid home every day, yadda, yadda, yadda... all went nowhere! WTF, I kept waiting for something to develop into a story arc that never came. It was however, mildly entertaining but in the end, it was just a collection of silly Jewish paradigms that resulted in a patchwork of story fragments with no payoff.
 
yoclay said:
It is one of the Coen brothers best efforts in my opinion. The ending is a perfect summation of the concept that you need to appreciate even what you perceive as your problems, because they are all a part of life and they pale in comparison to the alternative which is coming for the lead character.

The film is a very close study of a microcosm of American culture which is often shoved aside by the Woody Allen's of the world, who have appropriated it in the name of New York City regionalism. The sense of fatalism is endemic in the culture the Coen brothers are describing and the anecdote at the beginning of the film serves as a kind of explanation for this. I think the level of detail and the examination of underlying attitudes in the characters is masterful in this film. I think this too is underlined by the use of unknown actors, which are precisely chosen for their roles.

This is not one of their weakest efforts, it is one of their best, and the people who dislike it probably went in expecting something different. The Coen brothers films sometimes suffer from one dimensional caricatures. They have no real dramatic arc. (As in Burn After Reading). That can be entertaining for some. For myself that is boring.

Take another look at the end of the film, and think about it.
Click to expand...

I feel like this was the first truly insightful post regarding this movie (aside from a few rudimentary comments on the cinematography). It's a one-dimensional view to say that this movie is just a retelling of Job, or had no point, etc. etc. One of the ideas that drives this movie is the lack OF a point. The goy's teeth scene really sums that up for me. The first time I saw A Serious Man, I was waiting, waiting for the resolution, the big idea behind all the mystery, yet was, as the Coens most likely wanted from me, disappointed at the lack of resolution. But knowing filmmakers as well-versed as they, I knew this was intentional, that they chose to leave out a "point" not only to that anecdote in the film, but to (arguably) the whole overarching narrative. And the conclusion I came to was one I feel like Michael Stuhlbarg was desperately searching for throughout the movie: sometimes there simply is no "reason" for our suffering, that divine intervention, much to his dismay (as one can possibly imagine a 14-year-old Gopnik being told that everything happens according to God's plan), really has nothing to do with human action and circumstance. This movie was far better in my eyes on the second and third viewing, definitely, once I grasped what I interpreted as the Coens' intentions with what people said is their most personal film.

Cheers!
 
Thoroughly enjoyed this one. I was hesitant to watch due to lukewarm reception by critics & this thread. Moves slow, but I was never bored.

Ha ha, I wish he really got the "sexy cougar neighbor".
 
Culture clash !
What ?
Culture clash !
This is defamation .


Is this movie the funniest of 2009 ....no way but I enjoyed it. just saw a review on youtube. An episode of Seinfeld is lightyears funnier.
I dont know why its called a comedy though its more like a drama with a few bits here there ...The timing of the edit and actors reactions make it humorous.
I love the intro in the beginning . There is so much detail in the Art Direction of this movie that you can enjoy it because the camera moves are very gentle.
The ending is great as such is life :)

Ps : If I ever meet real life Sy I'm going to F* him up !
 
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