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A Serious Man: Movie Review
Dec. 13th, 2009 04:57 pmAh, the Coens. Don't we love 'em.
My personal favourite Coen movies in the past have been Fargo and The Big Lebowski. Also, rather against the trend, I preferred Burn After Reading to No Country For Old Men. No Country For Old Men seemed to have a very definite story arc for most of the movie and then seemed to just give up on it at the end, while Burn After Reading seemed to be going nowhere for a majority of the movie only to reveal what the movie was really all about at the end. (If that doesn't make sense to you there's a spoiler section at the end where I'll make that a bit clearer.)
Anyway, A Serious Man....
This is definitely now one my top three favourite Coen brothers films of all time and (perhaps because I'm still in afterglow of seeing it for the first time) it may actually be my favourite of all the Coen brothers movies. While I wouldn't advise that you watch the trailer, (after all, you know you are going to watch it, so why risk spoiling the surprise by having them try to sell it to you?) the trailer nevertheless sums up the movie rather perfectly by showing the main character having his head slammed against a wall over and over again. The general gist is that sometimes bad things just happen to you. I'd been given the impression that the main character was rather wishy washy and I was concerned that this might get irritating, but actually he just seems like an ordinary guy. Sure he doesn't take control of his life Bruce Willis style (actually, considering that Bruce Willis is most often depicted as a divorcee and borderline alcoholic perhaps that was a bad example), but he doesn't seem entirely passive.
You've probably heard about the strongly Jewish side of the movie (and if you want to hear more about that side of things, there's a rather awesome Jewish podcast which features an interview with the Coen brothers). The movie opens with the Coen brothers' own Yiddish folk tale about a curse and throughout the movie the main character is given rather odd advice from rabbis. In the end, the movie seems like an examination of the problem of evil and feels very reminiscent of the Biblical story of Job.
Job finds his life in ruins, seemingly as a result of God's own decision. He is told by those around him that it must be a punishment for his sin and he, quite rightly objects to this. But the big issue remains as to why God allows good things to happen to bad people and vice versa. Where's the natural justice? Job is eventually satisfied when God Himself meets him and tells him that humans can never hope to understand the power and majesty of their creator. Job is then given a new family to replace the one that died, lots of land to replace his lost wealth and a long lifespan - so apparently everything is fine. Does Larry Gopnik get any kind of resolution to the injustice he experiences? I'll let you see for yourself...
In this movie you can expect the same quirkiness that was found in The Big Lewbowski and the theme is quite similar too. In the centre of the story you have a character to whom a variety of things happen and in the end finds themselves wondering "why is this happening to me?" Movie critic Mark Kermode compares this with Kevin Smith's Clerks with its regular refrain of "I'm not even supposed to be here today". In that sense, A Serious Man is perhaps rather closer to Clerks in that it doesn't pepper the story with rich philanthropists, promiscuous trophy wives, protentious artists and nihilists, choosing instead to keep things firmly rooted in ordinary life.
As per usual, I am trying to avoid giving away too much about the movie, but to sum up there were very few moments in the movie where I wasn't in stiches with laughter and this is very possibly the best movie I have seen this year.
( Read more... )
My personal favourite Coen movies in the past have been Fargo and The Big Lebowski. Also, rather against the trend, I preferred Burn After Reading to No Country For Old Men. No Country For Old Men seemed to have a very definite story arc for most of the movie and then seemed to just give up on it at the end, while Burn After Reading seemed to be going nowhere for a majority of the movie only to reveal what the movie was really all about at the end. (If that doesn't make sense to you there's a spoiler section at the end where I'll make that a bit clearer.)
Anyway, A Serious Man....
This is definitely now one my top three favourite Coen brothers films of all time and (perhaps because I'm still in afterglow of seeing it for the first time) it may actually be my favourite of all the Coen brothers movies. While I wouldn't advise that you watch the trailer, (after all, you know you are going to watch it, so why risk spoiling the surprise by having them try to sell it to you?) the trailer nevertheless sums up the movie rather perfectly by showing the main character having his head slammed against a wall over and over again. The general gist is that sometimes bad things just happen to you. I'd been given the impression that the main character was rather wishy washy and I was concerned that this might get irritating, but actually he just seems like an ordinary guy. Sure he doesn't take control of his life Bruce Willis style (actually, considering that Bruce Willis is most often depicted as a divorcee and borderline alcoholic perhaps that was a bad example), but he doesn't seem entirely passive.
You've probably heard about the strongly Jewish side of the movie (and if you want to hear more about that side of things, there's a rather awesome Jewish podcast which features an interview with the Coen brothers). The movie opens with the Coen brothers' own Yiddish folk tale about a curse and throughout the movie the main character is given rather odd advice from rabbis. In the end, the movie seems like an examination of the problem of evil and feels very reminiscent of the Biblical story of Job.
Job finds his life in ruins, seemingly as a result of God's own decision. He is told by those around him that it must be a punishment for his sin and he, quite rightly objects to this. But the big issue remains as to why God allows good things to happen to bad people and vice versa. Where's the natural justice? Job is eventually satisfied when God Himself meets him and tells him that humans can never hope to understand the power and majesty of their creator. Job is then given a new family to replace the one that died, lots of land to replace his lost wealth and a long lifespan - so apparently everything is fine. Does Larry Gopnik get any kind of resolution to the injustice he experiences? I'll let you see for yourself...
In this movie you can expect the same quirkiness that was found in The Big Lewbowski and the theme is quite similar too. In the centre of the story you have a character to whom a variety of things happen and in the end finds themselves wondering "why is this happening to me?" Movie critic Mark Kermode compares this with Kevin Smith's Clerks with its regular refrain of "I'm not even supposed to be here today". In that sense, A Serious Man is perhaps rather closer to Clerks in that it doesn't pepper the story with rich philanthropists, promiscuous trophy wives, protentious artists and nihilists, choosing instead to keep things firmly rooted in ordinary life.
As per usual, I am trying to avoid giving away too much about the movie, but to sum up there were very few moments in the movie where I wasn't in stiches with laughter and this is very possibly the best movie I have seen this year.
( Read more... )
