A Serious Man
2009
**½
Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen
Cast: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed, Sari Lennick, Aaron Wolff
It's the late 1960s in the Midwest, where Larry Gopnik, an amiable science teacher, finds himself in an existential crisis when his marriage, career, and finances are suddenly in disarray. This is a deeply personal and very Jewish comedy, or, knowing the Coen brothers, a vacuous injoke so meticulously staged, beautifully shot, and strongly acted that everyone's fooled. In any case, it fails to impress as entertainment or as an intellectual exercise. "Life sucks, then you die", that's as deep as the brothers go.
