John Boorman was in his 50s when he made the excellent Hope and Glory,a memoir about the war years in his childhood.This film is a refreshing reminder that real subjects are independent of Hollywood values and big star casts.Only the Coens of the big directors would take a chance on such uncommercial material.It starts with an epigraph:" Receive with simplicity all that happens to you".We get a faux-folk tale,set in a Polish shetl,a kind of cartoon-starter story of a Dybbik knocking on a couple's door.We move to 1967 Minneapolis,where Larry Gopnik(Michael Stuhlbarg),a Jewish professor of mathematics,(who teaches such things as Schrodinger's Paradox and Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle),is hitting a rough patch.He's up for tenure but is being slurred in anonymous letters to the committee,the father of a student who attempted to bribe him is threatening to sue,and his wife wants a divorce,on the eve of their son's barmitzvah.Larry's brother(Arthur) appears to have found time for some increasingly criminal activity in between attending to his sebaceous cyst.What does it all mean?Is he being tested?He's undergoing the trials of Job,but Jewish traditions, stories,teachings,Rabbis,cannot help him,he is `losing track of Hashem'.His faith only offers empty platitudes and confusing parables.His neighbours are difficult or strange,one a pot-smoking nudist.Despite the presence of Hendrix and Jefferson Airplane on the soundtrack,and copious pot-smoking,this is a most un-groovy depiction of the 60s.In this loving recreation of Jewish suburbia, 'psychedelic'means many shades of brown.The DVD extras includes a feature on Jewish culture to enable goys to understand a few more ofthe jokes in this bone-dry comedy about what it means to be a `serious man'.The
Coens at the top of their game with the confidence to show us their Jewish culture.
(105 customers reviews)
Customers Rating=3.0 / 5.0
More Detail For A Serious Man Blu ray
- ISBN13: 0025195054393
- Condition: NEW
- Notes: Brand New from Publisher. No Remainder Mark.
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