Review: A Serious Man

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Fact: This movie was one of the 10 nominated films for Best Picture at the Oscars this year. Did you remember that? Neither did I. Of all of the nominated films this got the least exposure. It's just proof that the Academy loves them some Coen Brothers.

Larry Gopick (Miachel Stuhlbarg) is our not so Serious Man. He's a Jewish college professor living in the Midwest. His life is seriously out of order. We see his relationships with his boring superficial children, his wife all of a sudden wants to leave him for a more serious man and he is at odds with one of his students after giving him a bad grade. All of these things are happening to him at once and he's got several different people trying to (unsuccessfully) help him. Larry digs deeper into his religion for answers.

A lot of this film has to do with being Jewish. Which is great for the Coens because that's how they were raised. I'll be the first to admit that a lot of the Jewish references in the film went over my head. I think the film has a really deep meaning, but I had a hard time concentrating on it. The film is meant to be a dark comedy and it does have it's funny bits. (Gopick's high as a kite son talking at his Bar Mitzvah is a good example)(Fred Melamed's character provided some laughs for me as well) I found the film to be slightly boring, but I got what the Coens were going for. The film is like many of their other ones: Not for everyone.

Recommended: No/Yes. There is so many different opinions on this film I'd would say everyone needs to make their own opinion about it. Like I said, I didn't care for it, but plenty of people who's reviews I trust did.

Grade: C

Memorable Quote: "I fucked your wife, Larry! I seriously fucked her! Sy Abelman (Fred Melamed)

Comments

  1. UnivarnMarch 29, 2010 at 4:13 PM

    We pretty much agree on this one. I did a podcast review, and while I though it had all the parts, they were just a muck up of mediocre when put together.

    ReplyDelete
  2. movie downloadMarch 5, 2011 at 11:41 AM

    I did watched this movie when I heard that it was nominated for Oscars. I skipped this movie earlier as my friends told me that its not worth a watch. But I found it very interesting.

    ReplyDelete

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