Comments on: Review: A Serious Man

By: Sandy

Sandy — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 04:21:45 +0000

The Coen brothers' view is that there is a cause and effect nature to life. The film is bookended by a scene where a negative mystical figure is dealt with in a forceful manner and with a positive result (remember, we know this rabbi had been sat shiva), and ends with Gropnik's punishment for committing a dishonest and selfish act. Gropnik repeats that he has done nothing, but we see that the lack of positive action is as poor a choice as doing the wrong thing.
The mere consulting of so called experts on subjects is also a poor substitute for doing something positive. Gropnik allows his neighbor to take part of his property. He allows the record company to charge him for stuff he hasn't ordered. He fails to act in any positive manner to an obvious bribe.
Somehow, this suburban Jew feels that he is entitled to live the American dream by avoiding confrontation or by not breaking the law. The American dream comes true for people who act in a manner that is positive.
These are not the standards that I espouse. I am observing the conclusions of 2 men who grew up in a suburb of Minneapolis and who experienced the flavor of what it's like to be Jewish in that setting in 1967. Having said that, I should note that their focus is on what that experience lacked instead of the richness that it provided.

By: Jake

Jake — Fri, 16 Apr 2010 06:54:00 +0000

The movie is all about Job, and the absurdity of life. That there is no meaning, that's the whole point of the movie, just as the character searches for meaning as to why all of this is happening, we are also searching for that meaning. But it does not exist, there is no one pulling strings from above it is simply a treatment of the absurd.

By: Martin Schmidt

Martin Schmidt — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 05:20:11 +0000

Don't take it so seriously! The “theological significance” is that religion can't give answers in a world where the old “truth is found to be lies”. The wise old rabbi in the end recites a pop song, not some ancient religious writing. The storm in the end is nothing but the big crashing change that'll happen in the near future and sweep away everything we've found to be true. It's like the Dylan song “The times are a changin”..”it'll soon shake your windows and rattle your walls, for the times they are a changing.”
For me “A serious man” is way more optimistic than “No Country for old men”. No Country shows that in order to survive in a brutal world, you have to be unscrupulous. You have to accept that chance and money are all you can count on. That's why shigur survives everyone! Chance is his best friend, he is the cruelest guy and he doesn't whine about bad luck. In the end he gets hit by a car, isn't even surprised and gives some kids money for a new shirt to escape from the police. How banal is that?! Death is normal to him and the end says it'll stay this way.
But in “A serious man” there is a storm in the end that'll bring change.

By: kate

kate — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 17:30:55 +0000

I just saw this film last night and I found this film to be among the most excellent I've ever seen. If it's difficult to understand what it's about I believe it's because it's about each person's fundamental belief systems. Religion being one of the most massive. The awkward young rabbi came close in his analysis of "life is largely how you see it to be".
The abrupt ending throws viewers smack in front of their own belief systems and in front of the uncontrollability of our existence though we spend the greater part of our energy trying to control it.
The opening scene demonstrates how our actions and outlook on life are dictated by how our belief systems determine our reactions to events: The old man felt he'd had the luck of his life. Had his supersitious wife not been home he probably would have spent a wonderful evening chatting and sipping soup with the old man who'd helped him out.
But the man's wife is there and in a bad mood to boot. She quickly wields her ice pick but the old man does not immediately bleed ostensibly. Finally he does bleed and understandably disgruntled hobbles out of the house leaving viewers in front of their own belief systems. What happens to the alleged Dyubbuk? Will generations of this woman's descendence be cursed? Blessed?
Or did a nervous woman simply stab an old man in the heart with an ice pick for no other reason than what her "friend" had once told her about him?
Our society is built on mechanisms for managing and maintaining fear and confusion: Lawyers, X-ray machines, illicit drug markets, the police, creditors, and religious representatives for starters.
The only person who truly had something concrete to offer humanity in the form of a fairly reliable mathmatical equation capable of predicting the most commonplace of events (such as poker hands) is a harmless outcast with the police after him. What does that say about the belief systems ruling our "civilisation"?
Things are seldom what they seem, free yourself from those tyrannical belief systems and keep the ice pick out of your wife's reach!

By: Rachael Fan.

Rachael Fan. — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 10:22:24 +0000

Hello, if you knew anything at all about Jewish religion then you might understand that Mr. Shu from Glee is really the dybukk, and his brother is also a teach at high school and likes jewish girls too. Damn, the coens really need to direct an episode of glee.

By: Rachael Fan.

Rachael Fan. — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 04:22:24 +0000

By: Janice Lapin

Janice Lapin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:02:00 +0000

Please explain the connection in the beginning portion where the dybbuk is stabbed and does not die, with the characters in the 60′s and their catastrophic events.

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:02:00 +0000

Please explain the connection in the beginning portion where the dybbuk is stabbed and does not die, with the characters in the 60′s and their catastrophic events.

By: Janice Lapin

Janice Lapin — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 03:07:16 +0000

Please explain the connection in the beginning portion where the dybbuk is stabbed and does not die, with the characters in the 60's and their catastrophic events.