It's pretty difficult to peg "A Serious Man."
Best Picture nomination aside, it's one of the weaker efforts in the Coen Bros. library, though that comparison is, to me anyway, kind of like choosing the best Beatle.
But it feels more like a niche film to me, a vanilla sort of suburban middle-aged angst movie couched with a lot of Jewish subtext that I frankly just don't get.
That's not to say the angst isn't funny, but I can't help but think I'm missing something.
The film centers around Larry Gobnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), the man of the house in a rather nondescript 1967 midwestern Jewish community. When we meet him he's rather content at work, where he is a college physics professor vying for tenure, and at home, where his wife and two kids seem content to live their lives while he does the same.
Things quickly start falling apart, though, when Larry's wife (Sari Lennick) tells him she's been having an affair with Sy Abelman (Fred Melamed), and they're in love. Larry's feckless brother (Richard Kind) has moved in and sleeps on their couch, his daughter (Jessica McManus) wants a nose job, and his son Danny (Aaron Wolff), coming up on his bar mitzvah, seems content smoking weed and pestering pops to fix the arial so he can watch "F-Troop" (yes, in those days before satellite or even cable TV, the man of the house had to climb on the house and adjust his giant antenna so his brood can watch TV).
This would be considered black comedy in 1967 when the film is set, but in this age where the Coens' films have redefined that term, this is lilly white. There is the occasional bite, but nothing on the scale of, say, "Fargo" or "The Ladykillers."
In place of this, we get a lot of Jewish subtext, which for someone as not Jewish as I makes much of the film a complete mystery. There's a sequence at the film's outset where a Jewish couple encounter an old man who, the wife believes, is a member of the evil undead. The couple bicker as politely as possible in front of the man, who the wife alleges died and could not possibly be there in their living room asking for tea unless he were evil.
What significance this has to the rest of the film is a mystery to me. It's funny, and I feel like I'm missing something by not getting it, but though Jewish lore is spread throughout the film (Larry openly questions his place in the world as the film wears on), I can't offer much in the way of answers.
That's not to say "A Serious Man" is a bad film. It's at times slow moving, but it's anchored by strong performances. Stuhlbarg is wonderful in his first starring role, and Kind is strongly understated as a man who is beaten down and perhaps stepping outside the law to pick himself back up.
The best bit is an ongoing gag about an Asian student of Larry's who, after failing his course, is in danger of losing his scholarship. The student first pleads with his teacher, then offers a bribe, then his father shows up in Larry's driveway threatening legal action. The alleged bribe envelope continues to pop up through the film and has significance all its own.
I still have a difficult time completely recommending this film. It's one that film snobs and Coen Bros fans will probably enjoy, and I did as well, but I don't think most moviegoers will find "A Serious Man" just too much.
DVD extras are more or less cursory. A commentary by the Coens is sorely missing, and generic featurettes on the making of the film, a production design piece on creating 1967, and a Yiddish glossary.
Film: 4 Yaps Extras: 3 Yaps