A SERIOUS MAN (15, 105 mins) 8/10
A SERIOUS MAN (15, 105 mins) Comedy/Drama. Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Sari Lennick, Fred Melamed, Jessica McManus, Aaron Wolff, David Kang. Directors: Joel & Ethan Coen.
Released: November 20 (UK & Ireland)
IF fortune truly favours the brave, it’s no surprise that the hen-pecked, mild-mannered mensch at the centre of Joel and Ethan Coen’s new black comedy is pummelled senseless by bad luck.
Set in a Jewish community in mid-1960s Minneapolis reminiscent of the film-maker brothers’ own childhoods, A Serious Man is a deceptively simple portrait of a family in crisis, distinguished by a sharp script and terrific ensemble cast.
Following the unbearable tension of No Country For Old Men and the frippery of Burn After Reading, this new picture finds the Coens in a quirky hinterland where they previously bowled strikes with The Big Lebowski.
A quotation from 11th-century rabbi Rashi ("Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you") sows the seeds of foreboding, which blossom during a deliciously dark, Yiddish-language prologue set in a 19th-century Polish shtetl.
In this small Jewish village, a couple come face-to-face with a dybbuk (an evil spirit from folklore), which curses them for eternity.
The stylish, self-contained vignette doesn’t have any bearing on the rest of the film, but neatly introduces the themes of passivity and misfortune.
A Serious Man drops us squarely into the mounting devastation of University physics lecturer Larry Gopnik’s (Michael Stuhlbarg) once-idyllic life as, one by one, all of the people closest to him push him away.
Even the chief rabbi, whose wise counsel could help him make sense of the misery, refuses to see him.
Stuhlbarg adopts a permanent look of incredulity as his caring family man struggles to make sense of the cards that life has dealt him.
The supporting cast vividly bring their roles to life - Wolff is extremely watchable as the rock’n’roll-mad teenager fast approaching his bar mitzvah - as the Coens add flecks of humour, some of them causing us to wince almost as much as the characters.
