Coens get Serious in latest flick
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.
