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 People often question why bad things happen to good people. There are books about it, Oprah has shows about it, we ponder it in our daily lives and nothing handles the intricacies of this mind-boggling question better than pure existentialism: the idea that we are all alone against a universe that makes no sense, that we are constantly battling arbitrary and mindless forces of destruction. The much-lauded Coen brothers tackle existentialism in their latest foray into film, A Serious Man, and what better scenario to face this than in a Jewish community in the late ’60s. Commonly rumored to be somewhat biographical, A Serious Man is strongly entrenched in Joel and Ethan Coen’s native faith and is darkly, darkly comic.
The film begins with a Yiddish folk tale and the advice: “Receive everything with simplicity that happens to you”--perhaps a warning (or a warm-up) for the events to come. The events of the folk tale and the statement seem to warn against looking too deeply into coincidences or misunderstandings. Or perhaps it is a recommendation to be true to your gut instinct and not question it. The answer is infuriatingly elusive (or simple), which is good preparation for the story to come.
The central story surrounds Larry Gopnik (Tony Award-winner Michael Stuhlbarg), a middle-aged Jewish physics teacher, married with a son and a daughter, living deep in the suburbs of Minnesota. His wife, Judith (Sari Lennick), wants a divorce to be with a friend of the family, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed); his son Danny (Aaron Wolff), whose main focus seems to be acquiring and paying for pot, is constantly in trouble at school; and Larry’s older brother Arthur (Richard Kind) is out of work, sleeping on the family couch and constantly draining his neck cyst in the bathroom. Things are not great for Larry.
As the story unfolds, things go from bad to worse as Larry is throttled from obstacle to obstacle, trying to keep his chin up and believe that this is all happening for a reason. Judith, even though she will soon be with another, more serious man, nags him to go see the rabbi. Once things get bad enough, Larry turns to his religion for help.
From there, the story is broken into three parts, each leading up to a visit to another rabbi, each older and wiser than the next.
 If the Yiddish opening and all this talk of rabbis hasn’t made it clear yet, A Serious Man is a very Jewish film. The Coen brothers have been quoted as saying that they wanted to relate some of their experiences growing up with the film, and they have done so in spades. The majority of the characters are Jewish and Glopnik’s trials eventually turn into a questioning of faith, of what God has planned for every man and, more importantly, why. The excessive Jewish content, however, isn’t alienating to non-members of the faith.
The Coens ride a fine line here between the quirky intelligence of the majority of their films and the predictably bleak nothing-goes-right-for-our-guy type of humor that was incredibly popular in the late ’90s-early 2000s. They do, however, ride the line well and keep from teetering over into the mindless abyss of pure schadenfreude. Even though things keep getting worse for Gopnik, audiences are always teased with the possibility of there being a reason; we are on that path along with Gopnik, searching for answers.
Roger Deakins, the director of photography who the brothers have used almost exclusively since 1991’s Barton Fink, is back, and as a result, the film itself is stunning. The suburban landscape of Minnesota has never looked so lush or dramatic. He wasn’t missed from the farcical Burn After Reading solely because the material didn’t need the classic Deakins look, but A Serious Man would definitely have suffered from his absence.
The acting and writing are solid as well; this is vintage Coen, and this is a good film. By the end of A Serious Man, however, it has to be wondered if the Coens have gotten themselves perhaps a little too deep into the existentialist milieu.
 While it’s true that in life there are often no answers and bad things do just happen to good people, movies have become a great way to escape from that, and A Serious Man doesn’t quite offer the reprieve that many seek. One of the beauties of escaping to the movies is experiencing a tightly written story with a clear beginning and an end, and this film is slightly disappointing here.
It may improve with viewings as many experienced with The Big Lebowski, but A Serious Man lacks the strong, quirky characters and the, albeit rambling, complete story arc that its older filmic brother possesses. Some may see it as a piece of art, a tribute to the chaos that people deal with every day, but good art doesn’t always make for good entertainment.
A Serious Man is now playing in limited release.
For more information, visit the film’s official Web site.
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