Coens get Serious in latest flick

By Philip Poon     10/22/09 7:00pm

After the somewhat inconsequential Burn After Reading, the Coen brothers have taken a step away from the fast-paced, Hollywood-saturated comedy to create a film that, while incredibly entertaining, carries a weighty burden. Although the complex film encompasses a multitude of issues, the primary question the Coen brothers ask is one most of us have considered at some point in our lives: Why do bad things happen to good people? And why do bad things happen at all?In A Serious Man, the protagonist is Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg, Body of Lies), a short and unassuming physics professor who lives in a small suburb somewhere in the Midwest. Larry quickly wins our sympathy through his guileless and simplistic personality; his only desire is to live a normal life, and he tries his best to be a good father, brother, husband and professor. He treats people well, and when faced with moral dilemmas, he tries to do the right thing.

Even as his colossal troubles begin to bombard him, we sympathize with Larry's dogged desire to remain optimistic. Specifically, Larry attempts to be a "serious man," a respectable and upright person who is strong in the midst of these adversities, both in character and in religious faith.

Unfortunately for Larry, his life is not as straightforward as he would like. When the catastrophic storm of afflictions hits him full force, his friends and acquaintances have no answers to offer besides, "Have you seen the rabbi?" For a while, Larry is comforted by the hope that these wise men can help him find some sliver of meaning in his desperate situation. However, this hope doesn't last long, as Larry discovers these religious men know very little about, well, anything.

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Whether it is the naive and annoyingly quixotic rabbi-in-training who asks Larry to see God's beauty in the run-down parking lot or an older rabbi who is content with living in ignorance and denial, no one has any form of tenable advice. The film often cuts to shots of Larry's dumbfounded reaction, void of any optimism and on the verge of an emotional breakdown.

Although the film is set in this specific religious environment, it is less concerned with the Jewish faith and more with exposing and relentlessly ridiculing the feigned idealism that prevents any of the characters from truly understanding Larry in his time of despair. The only conclusion that the film makes is that any kind of certainty or understanding is an illusion, and that in reality, there are some things that cannot be explained or reasoned. Are God and religion one big game of karma? Why does Larry have to endure such travails? Why does suffering exist?

The Coen brothers' answer is in Sy Ableman (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas' Fred Melamed), who, on the surface, is a "serious man." However, we soon discover that Sy is not someone to be admired, but is instead irritatingly smug and duplicitous, stealing away Larry's wife while forcing Larry to move out of his home and into a motel. This revelation questions the mere existence of "a serious man," later making it obvious that Larry's own attempt to be "a serious man" never stood a chance, because such an idea, at least in this film, is only a myth.

What makes this a distinctive film is that despite its "seriousness," it has the incredible ability to entertain. The main reason for this is the Coen brothers' masterful sense of control over the look and feel of the production; everything is done so perfectly that at times it feels claustrophobic.

Yet, one cannot expect anything else from experienced auteurs, and the Coen brothers are no exception. Their particular style is apparent in the characters, whether the rabbis, the Hebrew school children or even Larry himself. Not only is the casting absolutely perfect, but the characters are also developed to the point where they nearly become caricatures.

This is entertainment in its finest form; who doesn't love to see characters like Jesus Quintana (John Turturro) from their 1998 film The Big Lebowski or the sinister Anton Chigurh (Javier Bardem) in their 2007 thriller, No Country for Old Men? In addition, the film is laced with moments of comedic genius, such as when we have the pleasure of watching Larry's son stumble through his bar mitzvah after smoking a joint in the synagogue bathroom.

There is no question that this is a good film; it is an acute commentary on human response to tragedy and misfortune. But what makes this a great film is that it doesn't take itself too seriously.

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