Coen Brothers release film A Serious Man

Writer-directors Joel and Ethan Coen (Burn After Reading, The Big Lebowski) returned with a Judaism based film, A Serious Man.  Despite such a somber title, the film has much of the same dark comedy audiences expect from the Coen brothers.

Unlike their previous films, however, audiences need to brush up on their Hebrew and Judaism traditions to fully understand many of the jokes.

The story follows an ordinary man's search for clarity in a quiet Mid-Western town in the year 1967. Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a timid university physics professor, returns home to find out that his wife Judith (Sari Lennick) is leaving him for one of his arrogant colleagues Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed).

If that isn't bad enough, Larry's unemployable brother Arthur (Richard Kind) is sleeping on the couch, his son Danny (Aaron Wolff) is a pot smoking slacker at Hebrew school and his daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus) steals money from him in order to save up for a nose job.

Afterwards things  get even worse for Larry. His wife and Ableman casually make new domestic arrangements which involve kicking Larry out of his own home, his brother becomes more and more of a burden and anonymous hostile letters seem to be trying to sabotage Larry's chances for tenure at the university.

Furthermore, a graduate student tries to bribe him for a passing grade while at the same time threatening to sue him for defamation. Plus, his neighbor's beautiful wife next door torments him by sunbathing nude. To find the answer to his troubles, he does what any Mid-Western Jewish man in 1967 would do: see three different rabbis for advice.

The rabbis themselves are like that of the porridge from “Goldilocks and the Three Bears.” The first is an inexperienced junior rabbi who doesn't give the best advice, the second is one of the full time rabbis who tells Larry a bizarre story rather leaving him rather confused and the third rabbi is the elderly yet wise Yoda type. 

The last rabbi seen in the film originates from a similar rabbi in Joel and Ethan Coen's childhood. "There was a particular rabbi in our town, not our rabbi, who used to Bar Mitzvah kids after the Bar Mitzvah," Joel says.

"He was sort of a sphinx like, Wizard of Oz kind of character and we thought that would make an interesting short film. Somehow that idea found its way into this story."

Although there are no big names in this Coen brother film, the acting is still first rate. Every actor plays their character well, especially Stuhlbarg who brings a ton of awkwardness and humor to his character Larry.

Stuhlbarg, who believes "there's a little bit of Larry in everybody," plays off the other actors creating this odd combination of feeling sorry for Larry yet also wanting to laugh at him at the same time.

As for the Judaism references in the movie, the Coen brothers paid attention to every single detail. For anyone going to see this film without an extensive Jewish background, be prepared to step up to the learning curve and take a crash course in everything Jewish from the Hebrew and Yiddish languages to the ceremonies.  Despite this film being a small reflection of their childhood, the Coen brothers spared no expense in making this film as authentic as possible.

"There were a couple of people who kind of were Jew advisors,” Ethan says, "technical advisors who helped with language and liturgical stuff for the service. We had a raft of translators for the Yiddish beginning of the movie."

Whether you are Jewish or not, A Serious Man is still a quality film. It may not be as gripping as No Country for Old Men or as hilarious as Burn After Reading, but it is a film that finds sly humor in the peculiar lives and mind-sets of a Mid-Western Jewish community in the late sixties.

The ending is unexpected, but if you've seen any other Coen brother movie you know that's just part of their style.

Is this film a possible Oscar contender? Probably not, but that's not why this film was made.

"It's a context for a story that we found very interesting because of our own direct experience with so much of where the story takes place and the kind of community and family that it takes place in." A Serious Man opens in theaters everywhere this weekend.