Joel and Ethan Coen’s most recent feature ‘A Serious Man’ (2009) poetically returns to the theme of masculine crisis, a concept that has filtered – at different levels – throughout their filmography. Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a mildly neurotic Jewish-American academic, is unappreciated by his kids, overshadowed by his wife’s demands for a divorce, burdened by an inept brother, and stuck between a rock and a hard place at work, where forceful bribery and unsecured scholarship leaves him unhinged. Coen’s protagonist renders martyr-like. Gopnik’s sacrifice and suffering, however, is just one shining light that illuminates this glowing feature.
Stuhlbarg as Gopnik is always intriguing: stocky, unsettled, restless and desperate for answers. His existential angst is a return – on the Coen’s part – to Woody Allen-esque neurosis. This is, without doubt, further evidence of their postmodernist style and self-reflexive Jewish humour. Fred Melamed as Sy Ableman is equally effective, even though both characters are completely oppositional in aesthetic. Melamed’s smooth vocal tone and charismatic demeanour makes his belittling gestures towards Gopnik seem comforting and warm. His large physical size also renders imposing, a permanent shadow cast over Gopnik’s quest to find answers to the problems that plague his mundane existence. Sari Lennik as Judith, however, never fails to grate on the viewer with her severity and toxicity. Her downfalls and hysteria as a disgruntled housewife do, without doubt, help to propel an already strong narrative further forward. Richard Kind as Uncle Arthur is sentimental and grotesque at the same time; a bumbling creep and lonesome melancholic. The film’s cast, it can be safely said, is polished and works well with the Coen’s fusing use of genre and thorough visual detail.
Set on the backdrop of a 1960s mise en scene, the Coens use Jewish culture and faith as a blank, comical framework to accentuate Gopnik’s existential crises, whilst reinforcing their own postmodernist filmic style.
(4/5)
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