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A Serious Man (2009)
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Overview
User Rating:
Directors:
Writers (WGA):
Release Date:
9 October 2009 (Denmark)
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Plot:
A black comedy set in 1967 and centered on Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern professor who watches his life unravel when his wife prepares to leave him because his inept brother won't move out of the house. | full synopsis
Plot Keywords:
Awards:
2 nominations
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NewsDesk:
(381 articles)
This week's new cinema previews
(From The Guardian - Film News. 20 November 2009, 4:15 PM, PST)
Cool 'For Your Consideration' Ads and Posters
(From Get The Big Picture. 19 November 2009, 9:50 PM, PST)
(From The Guardian - Film News. 20 November 2009, 4:15 PM, PST)
Cool 'For Your Consideration' Ads and Posters
(From Get The Big Picture. 19 November 2009, 9:50 PM, PST)
User Comments:
A Serious Film
more (60 total)
US Showtimes:
| Culver Plaza Theatres | 12:10pm | 2:40 | 5:05 | 7:30 | 10:00 | (personalize) more |
Cast
(Cast overview, first billed only) | Michael Stuhlbarg | ... | Larry Gopnik |
 | Richard Kind | ... | Uncle Arthur |
 | Fred Melamed | ... | Sy Ableman |
 | Sari Lennick | ... | Judith Gopnik |
 | Aaron Wolff | ... | Danny Gopnik |
| Jessica McManus | ... | Sarah Gopnik |
 | Peter Breitmayer | ... | Mr. Brandt |
| Brent Braunschweig | ... | Mitch Brandt |
 | David Kang | ... | Clive Park |
| Benjy Portnoe | ... | Danny's Reefer Buddy (as Bejamin Portnoe) |
| Jack Swiler | ... | Boy on Bus |
| Andrew S. Lentz | ... | Cursing Boy on Bus |
| Jon Kaminski Jr. | ... | Mike Fagle |
 | Ari Hoptman | ... | Arlen Finkle |
| Alan Mandell | ... | Rabbi Marshak |
Additional Details
MPAA:
Rated R for language, some sexuality/nudity and brief violence.
Parents Guide:
Runtime:
105 min | Canada:105 min (Toronto International Film Festival)
Color:
Aspect Ratio:
1.37 : 1 more
Sound Mix:
Certification:
USA:R (certificate #45447) |
Denmark:11 |
UK:15 |
Canada:G (Québec) |
Australia:M |
Canada:PG (British Columbia) |
Ireland:15A |
Canada:14A (Alberta/Manitoba/Ontario) |
Iceland:12 |
Finland:K-11
Filming Locations:
Company:
Fun Stuff
Trivia:
As with all Cohen Brothers movies, there are many allusions in the film. In "A Serious Man" many of the allusions are biblical. Larry is a Job like figure - a good man to whom many bad things happen with no explanation. When he is on his roof, he sees over his neighbor's fence and looks at his neighbor's beautiful wife naked in her yard - just as King David saw Bathsheba. His son Danny's looking at the tornado coming recalls God speaking to Job from out of the whirlwind that He will not explain why these bad things have happened to him.
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Goofs:
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Larry Gopnik is writing an equation on the board in class. At one point he writes delta p equals the square root of ^2 - ^2 which would be zero, but the correct equation has the squared inside the bracket in the first term under the square root: ^2-^2. This is an equation for the root mean square deviation of momentum in Heisenberg's uncertainty principle of quantum mechanics. Later in the scene, after the students leave and Sy Ableman appears, the equation is in the correct form.
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Quotes:
Clive's Father:
Please, accept the mystery.
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FAQ
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You might have to be a believer (Jewish or Christian) to like this film, although some secular (at least Midwestern) Jews and others may find it worthwhile for the period details. It is a modern version of the book of Job, which--of course you remember--contains a prologue in which God and Satan bet on whether Job will remain faithful and Satan then strikes down Job's flocks, children, and health; a series of speeches by three 'comforters' with Job's responses; a speech by 'Elihu' who is unhappy with the advice of the three comforters; the Lord himself answering Job directly out of the whirlwind ('who is this who darkeneth counsel by words without knowledge?; where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth?'); a final submissive speech by Job ('I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear, but now mine eye seeth thee, wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes'); and an epilogue in which Job receives more flocks and children than he had before....
The book and the film address what (Christian, at least) theologians call 'theodicy', or how bad things can happen in the world when God, who supposedly controls everything, is supposedly good. For nonbelievers (if you have any interest in the subject), the best way to think of this is perhaps to ask yourself whether the universe (the 'Creation') is on balance a good thing ('and God saw that it was good....'). If so, then perhaps we have an obligation to live moral lives and (as Jews and Christians think of it) to follow God's law. If not, then perhaps it's every man for himself and the Devil take the hindmost....
If you like this film, you really need to see it twice. But without giving anything away, if you see it once, be careful to pay attention to (i) the bribe that, like Schroedinger's cat, is alive and dead at the same time and (ii) the 'voice from the whirlwind' (thanks to Grace Slick) at the end. This is a great film.