This is a sly commentary on the life of an upwardly mobile and morally committed man. Funnier than your average comedy..

Released in 2009 and written & directed by the Coen brothers, "A Serious Man" is a black comedy/drama/satire about a passive Minneapolis physics professor (Michael Stuhlbarg) in 1967 who faces a series of tragedies and desperately seeks the answers 'Why?' Sari Lennick plays his unfaithful wife and Fred Melamed (who looks like Francis Ford Coppola) her lover. Richard Kind appears as the eccentric (maybe genius) uncle while Aaron Wolff & Jessica McManus play the kids. Amy Landecker is on hand as a sexpot neighbor. Simon Helberg (from The Big Bang Theory) has a small role as an assistant rabbi. There's a prologue that was shot in the Czech Republic which the Coens say has no link to the rest of the movie. Really? It struck me as rather tedious and, if it has no connection to the story, why is it there? Actually, I didn't find the entire first half of the film very entertaining and the protagonist's ultra-passivism started to become exasperating, but around the halfway point things began to click and I found myself consistently amused till the end.Freely borrowing from the awesome book of Job, this movie will obviously play better to Jewish and Christian audiences; perhaps also other spiritual seekers. It addresses the deep questions of life and the inherent challenges of the human condition (trapped in a physical shell in a fallen world while yearning for the perfect and divine) with a good sense of satirical humor. The song "Somebody to Love" by Jefferson Airplane is a focal point and supposedly holds the non-answers:"When the truth is found to be lies; And all the joy within you dies. Don't you want somebody to love? Don't you need somebody to love? Wouldn't you love somebody to love? You better find somebody to love." There are anachronistic references to two albums: Santana's Abraxas and Creedence Clearwater Revival's Cosmo's Factory, which weren't released until 1970, three years after the events in the film. The movie runs 106 minutes and was shot in the Minneapolis, Minnesota, area (e.g. the suburban scenes were filmed in Bloomington), including St. Louis Park, where I spent my childhood. GRADE: B-

The Coen Brothers are masters of their craft. Few filmmakers today can combine genres, produce stunningly original stories, and master every aspect of cinematic technique like they can. "A Serious Man" is among their most recent efforts, and it is also among their greatest.It's a black comedy that relies more on character and situation than actual plot (somewhat like another darkly humorous Coens masterpiece, "Inside Llewyn Davis") that focuses around a middle aged Jewish father and husband whose life transforms into a storm of chaos and really, REALLY bad luck. Here, the Coens wonderfully weave elements of hilarious humor and gut wrenching tragedy all at once. Some scenes are both sad and funny, and the Coens are such masters that these two genres to not clash together in a chaotic way, but, instead, a very natural, effective way. The Coens realize that even when life is at its absolute worse, it can still be hilarious-which is really the essence of dark humor within itself. It makes the worst, most miserable aspects of being funny.There is no real happy ending here, much is left unresolved. It is a mysterious ending, the type that audiences like to groan at. However, for a film as unique and dark as this it works quite well. There is no need for a resolution, the ending itself is powerful enough to conclude the fascinating fable. The final shot of this film is so beautiful, haunting, and indescribably sad it packs a punch for the ages.

It kind of cracks me up when I read people saying they do not understand this movie and that makes it a bad movie. (People today love simplistic answers - even if they are wrong. It is much more reassuring that having to think). In this case at least isn't this the point though? Life IS like that. The core of the movie seems to be about the inscrutability of the universe and of God's purpose. Or is there a God? It does not ask this question outright - but it is hanging there. Together with the question we all have - we are convinced there must be an answer to - what is OUR purpose? Poor old Larry Gubnik, always being a serious man. Always doing what's right and in return being served up a big steaming pile of drek. Seeking answers from God (or the Rabbi) and getting nonsense - or getting no answer at all. Very dark. But I have been there myself at times in my life when all of my plans have been crapped upon by the universe - trying the same things Larry tried, asking the same questions Larry asked but - Silence. So I get it. I get what Larry is going through. And of course some reviewers have pointed out the similarities to the biblical story of Job. But did anyone else pick up the symbolism in the movie of Larry, up on the roof, twisting the TV antenna to get a better reception - a message from the ether? When this is also exactly the theme of the movie. Poor old Larry cannot even get "F Troop" clearly. How can he expect to get a clear message from God. This was not a coincidence, folks. Those sneeky Coen brothers!The movie also raises issues many Jews specifically have had to ask themselves in the face of say, writ large, the holocaust. Jews confronted by outright malice and evil or by just by being in the wrong place at the wrong time ask themselves that eternal question. If there is a God, why does he let bad things happen. For some this was the trigger to turn off religion. For others it strengthened their faith somehow. So at another level the movie is about what is it about to be a Jew and to ask yourself the same questions that Jews have asked themselves down the ages. In this case "What's going on?" as the Coen's express it.Also I have a sneeky feeling this movie is also biographical in a way. The Coens grew up in the twin cities area of USA in the 1960s I have read. They would have been Bar Mitvah'd in a synagogue much like the one depicted and the Jewish characters would have been much like those depicted too. The life questions they may have asked themselves as they became adults would have been much like those asked in the movie and even if all the bad stuff did not happen to them personally they may well have feared it would - will I get an urgent call from my doctor about a routine xray? Will my kid's Bar Mitzvah go OK. Will my wife run off with another man, taking everything I have including my family, self respect and my understanding of who I am? In other words perhaps all the normal stuff of life. But written in bold type both because us Jews are a neurotic bunch and because it is damn good material for black comedy. As Woody Allen found out before them.But of course the Coens would not have gotten any answers to these questions just as Larry did not. Silence. Zip. Bupkis. But there is one thing I learned that life taught me and maybe this is part of the message too. Nice guys too often DO finish last. If you are too nice, too compliant, too good, people will take advantage and crap on you. And maybe the universe does too, although in its case, not because it is malicious, but rather, just uncaring. And that is a lesson poor old Larry never learned.