THE GOOD
1. It's the Coen Bros's most personal movie yet...Ok, so the Coens don't exactly make "personal" movies (or at least, ones we know about) but even so A Serious Man sees the duo shift down a gear into more domestic, low-key storytelling after the bloodbath of No Country For Old Men and the hectic misfire of Burn After Reading...film channels their own Minnesota upbringing and feels all the more intimate for it.
2. Michael Stuhlbarg's performance as maths professor & loyal husband/father Larry Gopnik...Stuhlbarg has been a jobbing TV actor for the past 10 years but A Serious Man represents his first lead role in a movie...It's a stunner, too - as the hapless protagonist, Stuhlbarg exudes humanity in a way we haven't seen in a Coen Bros movie since Frances McDormand's award-winning turn in Fargo...he WILL be Oscar-nominated.
3. The final shot of a tornado headed straight towards the young Danny Gopnik (played with confidence by newcomer Aaron Wolf) is stunning and poetic...Sure, there's lots of speculation as to what it all means, exactly (the existential shit-storm coming to Danny post-Bar Mitzvah as he hurls himself into the responsibilities and obligations of adult life, perhaps?) but whatever your interpretation, there's no denying its puzzling beauty...one of the most haunting scenes you'll see in a cinema this year.
4. It's a small-scale film about big questions...as Gopnik's life starts falling apart around him, he turns to three local Rabbis for guidance...Naturally, being a Coen Bros movie at no point is an easy solution on the table - take, for instance, the diverting "Goy's Teeth" sequence, in which a dentist desperately tries to make sense of a series of Hebrew inscriptions discovered on the inside of a patient's teeth only to be told not to worry about it...this pretty much sums up everything about the film's philosophy and approach to narrative convention (don't think too hard, take it easy, it's the journey that counts etc.)
5. Richard Kind...the movie's biggest name (he's a regular in Curb Your Enthusiasm) also plays its most curious character, Gopnik's brother Arthur, who's sleeping on the sofa and working on his own gambling theory which seems to work but no one really seems to know why...He's the lost soul of the film, and underplays beautifully.
6. It's funny. Really funny. From the increasingly sinister attempts of a Korean student trying to bribe Gopnik into bumping his grades to the sheer uselessness of the Rabbis' advice, the gags flow pretty consistently throughout. Just don't expect big belly laughs, however - this is black stuff.
7. Roger Deakins. As you'd expect from the legendary cinematographer & regular Coen collaborator (with the exception of Burn After Reading, he's handled every one of their films since Barton Fink) the film looks gorgeous, perfectly capturing Gopnik's suburban hell as the world closes in around him.
THE BAD
1. Not exactly entry-level Coens...loose plot and meandering structure will no doubt perplex as many people as it will delight e.g. period prologue set within a Polish shetl & entirely in Yiddish is interesting but apparently unconnected with the main events of the film...that's the kind of artistic freedom you get when you're the Coen Bros...
2. Female characters are either secretaries, adulterers or sex objects...if you're looking for strong women then go elsewhere (disappointing from the creaters of Fargo's brilliant Marge Gunderson)...This is very much about the Jewish male experience.
3. It's still as cynical as hell, another Coen trait...Despite his apparent attempts to do the right thing at all opportunities, Gopnik's life still falls apart around him for reasons he can't control or will never understand...any attempt to improve his situation tends to result in failure or confusion.
4. Er, that's it. This is the Coens on form...
VERDICT...
Like The Man Who Wasn't There, this is very much one for the fans. The Coens have long since given up trying to adapt their unique world-view for a mainstream audience and there's nothing in A Serious Man that suggests they're about to change anytime soon. However, if you want to take the ride, you'll find it a rich, rewarding, if occasionally frustrating experience.
****
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