A Serious Man
The masterful Coen brothers (No Country For Old Men, The Big Lebowski) present a black comedy set in 1967, about Larry Gopnik, a physics professor who watches his life unravel when his wife leaves him.
If that wasn't enough, Larry's inept brother (Spin City's Richard Kind) won't move out of the house, his son has a discipline problem, his daughter's stealing his money for her nose job, somebody is trying to sabotage his university career and his neighbour sunbathes nude. Larry turns to three rabbis for advice...
- Director:
- Ethan CoenJoel Coen ('Burn After Reading', 'No Country For Old Men', 'The Man Who Wasn't There', 'O Brother, Where Art Thou?', 'The Big Lebowski', 'Fargo')
- Writer:
- Ethan CoenJoel Coen
- Cast:
- Michael StuhlbargRichard KindSimon HelbergAdam ArkinGeorge WynerKatherine BorowitzFyvush Finkel
Reviews & comments
Variety
pressOne doesn't know how (auto)biographical any or all of this is, but there's a tartness to the telling of what amounts to a well-shaped series of anecdotes that bespeaks distant pain or, at least, wincing memory twisted into mordant comedy by time and sensibility.
Total Film
pressA complex, non-commercial Coen film that strips back the stars for an absorbing, affectionate look at the Bros’ youth. It keeps much at arm’s length, but with Stuhlbarg holding the disorder in check, A Serious Man will be a serious contender for Coen fan Top Fives.
The New York Times
pressThe story is at once hilarious and horrific, its significance both self-evident and opaque. The same could be said of most of the Coen brothers’ movies, in which human existence and the attempt to find meaning in it are equally futile, if also sometimes a lot of fun. (For us, at least.)
Rolling Stone
pressThis seriously funny movie, artfully photographed by the great Roger Deakins, is spiritual in nature, barbed in tone, and, oh, yeah, it stings like hell.
Roger Ebert
pressHave I mentioned A Serious Man is so rich and funny? This isn't a laugh-laugh movie, but a wince-wince movie. Those can be funny too.
New Zealand Herald
pressBut it's finally more grim than funny and leaves us with the same uncomfortable feeling that Burn did: that the boys are more interested in their own amusement than their audience's.
Hollywood Reporter
pressA seriously funny film about an angst-ridden Jewish professor seeking the answers to life's questions and getting a metaphysical pie in the face.
Empire Magazine
pressAdmirably low-key, deeply compelling and their warmest movie since Fargo.
A Serious Man does not describe the absurdity of some archaic traditions as much as it describes the absurdity of the community and the false sense of belonging it provides to their members. (staying together without a cause) It is the tragedy of mankind viewed from one specific angle, but it is nothing new. The biggest let down if I compare the character...
The main character and his family are total idiots in a non-farcical way, his "journey" through the "mistery of faith" is so insignificant it will make you hope for the Big Lebowski to burst through a scene and kick their sorry behinds. There is no storyline, no direction in that movie. Start, middle and end have no linkage whatsoever, it is like...
You can't take this movie too seriously. It is like a homage to middle-class Jewish American life in the 60s.
The first scene does have relevance when that women rids the evil spirit that is reference to larry accepting the money from the student therefore he accepts evil and bad things happen. Most people like me and some wise critics love this movie and think this is one of the coens best you obviously no nothing about film, go back to watch some crap like...
My two friends and I went to this movie last night based on the good reviews from this website. Basically we all thought it was terrible (and so did a few others in the theatre from what we heard). Long, very little happened during the movie; throughout the theatre there was hardly any laughter; no ending and the opening scene had no relevance to the rest...
Variety
pressOne doesn't know how (auto)biographical any or all of this is, but there's a tartness to the telling of what amounts to a well-shaped series of anecdotes that bespeaks distant pain or, at least, wincing memory twisted into mordant comedy by time and sensibility.
Total Film
pressA complex, non-commercial Coen film that strips back the stars for an absorbing, affectionate look at the Bros’ youth. It keeps much at arm’s length, but with Stuhlbarg holding the disorder in check, A Serious Man will be a serious contender for Coen fan Top Fives.
The New York Times
pressThe story is at once hilarious and horrific, its significance both self-evident and opaque. The same could be said of most of the Coen brothers’ movies, in which human existence and the attempt to find meaning in it are equally futile, if also sometimes a lot of fun. (For us, at least.)
Rolling Stone
pressThis seriously funny movie, artfully photographed by the great Roger Deakins, is spiritual in nature, barbed in tone, and, oh, yeah, it stings like hell.
Roger Ebert
pressHave I mentioned A Serious Man is so rich and funny? This isn't a laugh-laugh movie, but a wince-wince movie. Those can be funny too.
New Zealand Herald
pressBut it's finally more grim than funny and leaves us with the same uncomfortable feeling that Burn did: that the boys are more interested in their own amusement than their audience's.
Hollywood Reporter
pressA seriously funny film about an angst-ridden Jewish professor seeking the answers to life's questions and getting a metaphysical pie in the face.
Empire Magazine
pressAdmirably low-key, deeply compelling and their warmest movie since Fargo.
A Serious Man does not describe the absurdity of some archaic traditions as much as it describes the absurdity of the community and the false sense of belonging it provides to their members. (staying together without a cause) It is the tragedy of mankind viewed from one specific angle, but it is nothing new. The biggest let down if I compare the character...
The main character and his family are total idiots in a non-farcical way, his "journey" through the "mistery of faith" is so insignificant it will make you hope for the Big Lebowski to burst through a scene and kick their sorry behinds. There is no storyline, no direction in that movie. Start, middle and end have no linkage whatsoever, it is like...
You can't take this movie too seriously. It is like a homage to middle-class Jewish American life in the 60s.
The first scene does have relevance when that women rids the evil spirit that is reference to larry accepting the money from the student therefore he accepts evil and bad things happen. Most people like me and some wise critics love this movie and think this is one of the coens best you obviously no nothing about film, go back to watch some crap like...
My two friends and I went to this movie last night based on the good reviews from this website. Basically we all thought it was terrible (and so did a few others in the theatre from what we heard). Long, very little happened during the movie; throughout the theatre there was hardly any laughter; no ending and the opening scene had no relevance to the...
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