A Serious Man

Following their arbitrarily silly, painfully aggravating foray into dark comedy with last year's Burn After Reading, Joel and Ethan Coen (those talented brothers who nearly do it all, from writing to directing to editing) have taken a decidedly more serious route with their latest movie. Except that A Serious Man, an oddball tale of life and death (well, mostly death) in 1960s Minnesota, is a strangely comedic movie all on its own. Then again, all Coen movies have some semblance of humour, so a movie with Serious in the title and jokes in its narrative should come as little surprise.

What also fails to surprise is the Coen brothers' combined ability to make a classic one year (No Country for Old Men), follow it up with a stinker (Burn After Reading), and then complete the quirky trifecta with an intriguing, yet woefully unsatisfying movie (this one). The Coens play by their own rules, which makes them a filmmaking force to be reckoned with. But their rules don't often add up to a whole lot, which is essentially the case with A Serious Man. It's a unique and singular vision, but it's also dramatically impotent.

The Serious Man of the title is Jewish Physics professor Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), who wants only to live a good and holy life. But since this is a Coen brothers movie, Larry's life is about to get ugly and good has little to do with it. One moment, things are happy and cheery and all is well with Larry. The next moment, his wife wants a divorce, his kids hate each other and show little respect to him, his sad-sack brother refuses to find his own apartment and instead sleeps on the couch, and an issue at his work threatens to challenge his personal ethics code.

Suddenly, Larry's life is spiralling out of control and so he begins to ponder the big questions about life and death. What's it all about? Is there a deeper meaning and, if so, what is it? Is Larry being punished? Or, as the juicy prologue suggests, is Larry cursed? The problem with A Serious Man is not so much that none of these questions have answers (that's pure Coen brothers ambiguity there), but rather that the quest for answers leads to nowhere in particular.

Plot strands are left hanging, while others pop up at seemingly random spots in the narrative only to further muddle the whole story. The Coen brothers' message (more doom and gloom, as usual) is somewhat eclipsed by the strangely meandering plot that keeps piling on the conflict and merely manages to obscure any tangible emotional connection to the characters. Larry's life keeps getting worse, but as his problems intensify, I felt myself losing interest in his journey.

But in standard Coen brothers fashion, A Serious Man is a complex work with a recognizable aftertaste. On the surface, the story of a man looking to his faith for meaning in his life seems entirely out of place when compared to past Coen efforts that include Prohibition era mobsters (Miller's Crossing), a writer holed up in a hellish hotel (Barton Fink), and baby-stealing lovers (Raising Arizona). But due to their specific style and confident composition, A Serious Man is instantly identifiable as a Coen brothers movie. And as a Coen brothers movie, it manages to make a considerably oddball impression that takes form after the end credits have rolled.

When I initially exited the theatre, I felt confident in my assertion that A Serious Man was a deeply forgettable movie. It fell flat for me and didn't make any sort of powerful impact to guarantee that it would be memorable in any way. But since seeing the movie, I notice that it has stuck with me, trapped in my head, my mind replaying various moments, and it's clear that the movie is far from forgettable. That discovery doesn't change the fact that I simply did not have an emotionally visceral reaction to the story, but it makes me think the movie's power is psychological and it does remind me that the Coens are playing their own game here and that A Serious Man has a strength that lurks beneath the surface.

It doesn't hurt that two regular Coen collaborators turn in some truly fascinating work here. Cinematographer Roger Deakins and composer Carter Burwell deserve a lot of credit for making A Serious Man such a treat to look at and listen to. Deakins' photography is exquisite (as always), beautifully capturing the visual innocence of Larry's world with soft, inviting hues. Burwell's musical score is another triumph, perfectly punctuating important moments in Larry's journey. The imagery is so superb and the score so sublime that A Serious Man can rightfully claim some genuine success in the visual and aural departments.

The Coen brothers have made another confounding, uncompromising movie that fits comfortably in the midst of their impressive filmography. It is a movie that continues to swim through my thoughts in strangely expressive ways, even as I acknowledge that it is not sufficiently compelling enough to rank among my favourite Coen works (those would be Blood Simple, Fargo, and No Country for Old Men). It deals with big issues on a small scale and everything about it, from the occasionally funny jokes to the gaping black hole attempting to swallow Larry, feels firmly rooted in a Coen brothers world. A Serious Man is not a masterpiece, but it is far from being a disaster, as well, instead locating an intriguing space where the movie makes an impression even as it loses its way.