The Meaning of Strife

The Meaning of Strife

The Coen Brothers’ newest romp lays pathos on thick and humorously in Serious Man

By Morgan P Salvo

4 ½ stars

Strangely, the filmmaking duo of Fargo, No Country For Old Men and The Big Lebowski managed to sneak a movie in under the radar, having the feel of an instant art house classic. A Serious Man is the best movie I’ve seen this year. Stemming from all things Jewish, Leave it to Beaver, and Middle America circa 1967, the Coen Brothers have executed a comic genius masterpiece.

While opening credits snap to the drum beat of “Somebody to Love” by Jefferson Airplane we zoom through an ear cavity connected to a transistor radio ear piece held by a kid during Hebrew school. One might ascertain that this is going to be another Coen Bros bizarre ride. It’s not as weird as simplistic, a meticulous tale that’s taken to every inch of its breaking point. The setting is 1967 Minnesota and University physics professor Larry Gopnik’s (Michael Stuhlbarg) life is coming apart at the seams. His wife (Sari Lennick) is leaving him, his jobless brother (Richard Kind) has moved in, a student is threatening to sue him over a poor grade, Columbia Record Club peppers him with past due calls, someone is trying to sabotage his chances for tenure and his son’s bar mitzvah is approaching. Larry seeks advice from three different rabbis and a personal lawyer but whether anyone can help him overcome his many hardships remains to be seen. Throughout this comedy of errors you await for Gopnick’s head to explode at any given moment.

The Coen’s dire and twisted yet palpable humor has never been sharper. The painstakingly minute detail of every shot burns some kind of energy into your brain. The perfectly weird décor in everyone’s GI-bill tract house is flawless. The comic timing is impeccable. The dialogue remains a smart and hilarious balancing act atop one never ending catastrophe after another .The pace bounces from frenetic to slow and calculated. The slow-burn comic bantering is especially genius; the dialogue bulging with double entendres and innuendoes. Focusing on little things exaggerates every nuance from stomach gurgling or a character’s scene exit that has you snickering at their body language to the shots held just that tad too long on a facial expression to make it surreally funny. It’s all there in wackier-than-thou Coen Bro doctrine. Although with F-Troop as sitcom fodder and the Surrealistic Pillow album to depict this generation, hopefully the gap doesn’t alienate too much.

The brilliantly subdued performance of Stuhlbarg (Tony award winner/virtually unknown to the big screen) is nothing less than perfect. Among the supporting cast standouts are Amy Landecker as the pot smoking nude sun bathing neighbor, Fred Melamed as the smarmy “other man” and Kind’s hooker-obsessed/gambling addict/ mathematical genius that drains his own cyst with a mad scientist’s flair.

The Coen’s most intensely Jewish and autobiographical film (echoing the Coens' own background) Serious Man oddly turns out to be one of their most pertinent and accessible. Stemming from a prologue of Jewish folklore depicting what may or not be an evil “dybbuk” (purposely credited with a question mark) we are to gather that the meaning of life is a series of unanswered questions. The moral is the decision to do good for others as well as yourself in the face of all things perilous and wrong.

Clearly coming from a deeply personal place Serious Man is dark, disturbing and hilarious; a pitch perfect comedy exploring questions of faith, familial responsibility, delinquent behavior, dental phenomena, mathematics, academia, gambling, infidelity, mortality, Judaism and the powers of nightmares. Never missing a beat the formidable filmmaking skill the Coens have honed in more than 25 years of collaboration exhibits itself in every frame. If you go see a movie this year, especially one you’ve never heard of, seriously---this is the one.

A Serious Man

Starring Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Sari Lennick, Fred Melamed, Amy Landecker, Adam Arkin

Written & Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen