A Serious Man

An expectedly oddball effort from the Coens, A Serious Man follows circa 1960s physics teacher Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) as the various elements in his life start to unravel over the course of a few particularly eventful weeks. There’s little doubt that A Serious Man receives a lot of mileage out of Stuhlbarg’s absolutely stunning central performance, as the actor does a superb job of transforming Larry into a fully-formed, entirely compelling figure. The low-key character study vibe offered up by the Coens is subsequently easy enough to accept for about the first half, with the evocative portrait of Larry’s community and the folks in his life effectively sustaining one’s interest and compensating for the distinct lack of plot. This only holds true for so long, however, as there does reach a point at which the aimlessness of Joel and Ethan Coen’s screenplay becomes increasingly difficult to stomach – thus ensuring that the film demonstrably starts to run out of steam somewhere around the midway point. And although the filmmaking siblings do a nice job of breaking the proceedings up with almost inexplicable segues (eg a long tale of a dentist who notices something odd about one of his patients), A Serious Man finally establishes itself as a typically inscrutable effort from the Coens that might hold some appeal for their die-hard fans (although even the most ardent Coen follower will find themselves scratching their head over the movie’s almost comically abrupt conclusion).

** out of ****