A Serious Man (Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Malamed, George Wyner) – The Coen Brothers strike again. Ethan and Joel Coen wrote and directed a Jewish version of their own Fargo without the killings. Relative unknown actor Michael Stuhlbarg plays Professor Larry Gopnik (the William H. Macy character from Fargo), a guy whose life is going sour fast. His wife is having an affair and is leaving him. She kicks him out so he’s living in a hotel with his brother, Arthur (Richard Kind of Mad About You), who has significant behavioral and mental problems. He’s got serious money problems. A university committee is considering whether to grant him tenure, and it doesn’t look good. As a result, he seeks counsel from the rabbis in his synagogue. First, he tries the junior rabbi, whose advice befits his experience. The senior rabbi (played by George Wyner, one of the few actors you will recognize) starts his advice with a seemingly sage story that ultimately seems irrelevant. So Gopnik desperately seeks the counsel of the old head rabbi, who is rarely seen except by the Bar Mitzvah boys on their big day. Set in the 1960s, the movie has the feel of a period piece. The only reason for this is to signal that this is autobiographical for the Coen boys, who grew up in Minneapolis in a Jewish family.
As in Fargo, the plight of our lead character grows increasingly dark even as the Bar Mitzvah of his son and a possible reconciliation with his wife seems to signal a turn for the better. But alas, this is a Coen brothers film so the bizarre it likely to come. Whether the end of the film is signaled by a scene at the beginning of the movie featuring a Jewish couple in the early 20th century is anyone’s guess. The good news is that the movie maintains your interest, especially if you’re Jewish, and only cost $7 million to make. The bad news is that it will not find a broad audience and will not leave you feeling satisfied.