A Serious Man (2009)

This is a sly commentary on the life of an upwardly mobile and morally committed man. Funnier than your average comedy..

I literally created an account just to write this review. I was scrolling on Netflix and came across this movie. I decided to google it and saw that it had a 90% rating on Rotten Tomatoes!! After watching the movie, I can tell you that rating is absolute blasphemy.This is by far the worst movie I have ever seen in my life. I am genuinely upset that I spent 2 hours of my life on this film. I would have rather spent two hours watching The Emoji Movie. Don't be afraid of any spoilers in this post because nothing happens throughout the course of the movie. It is a movie about nothing. Every character is so damn unlikable and the movie itself is set in the most average place on earth. I want to sue the Coen Brothers for the two hours I wasted on this film. I waited through the entire movie clinging onto hope that something, ANYTHING, of significance would happen but I found nothing but an endless tunnel of boredom along the way. The movie had a chance to redeem itself by having Michel and Mrs. Samsky bang but even that didn't happen.I can't believe how many snobby reviews there are rating this as a "masterpiece". Get over yourselves and admit that this is a horribly boring movie.

Released in 2009 and written & directed by the Coen brothers, "A Serious Man" is a black comedy/drama/satire about a passive Minneapolis physics professor (Michael Stuhlbarg) in 1967 who faces a series of tragedies and desperately seeks the answers 'Why?' Sari Lennick plays his unfaithful wife and Fred Melamed (who looks like Francis Ford Coppola) her lover. Richard Kind appears as the eccentric (maybe genius) uncle while Aaron Wolff & Jessica McManus play the kids. Amy Landecker is on hand as a sexpot neighbor. Simon Helberg (from The Big Bang Theory) has a small role as an assistant rabbi. There's a prologue that was shot in the Czech Republic which the Coens say has no link to the rest of the movie. Really? It struck me as rather tedious and, if it has no connection to the story, why is it there? Actually, I didn't find the entire first half of the film very entertaining and the protagonist's ultra-passivism started to become exasperating, but around the halfway point things began to click and I found myself consistently amused till the end.Freely borrowing from the awesome book of Job, this movie will obviously play better to Jewish and Christian audiences; perhaps also other spiritual seekers. It addresses the deep questions of life and the inherent challenges of the human condition (trapped in a physical shell in a fallen world while yearning for the perfect and divine) with a good sense of satirical humor. The song "Somebody to Love" by Jefferson Airplane is a focal point and supposedly holds the non-answers:"When the truth is found to be lies; And all the joy within you dies. Don't you want somebody to love? Don't you need somebody to love? Wouldn't you love somebody to love? You better find somebody to love." There are anachronistic references to two albums: Santana's Abraxas and Creedence Clearwater Revival's Cosmo's Factory, which weren't released until 1970, three years after the events in the film. The movie runs 106 minutes and was shot in the Minneapolis, Minnesota, area (e.g. the suburban scenes were filmed in Bloomington), including St. Louis Park, where I spent my childhood. GRADE: B-

Not sure how anyone can like this movie -it is a caricature of Judaism, with enough angst to make Woody Allen appear absolutely stable! This is just an exercise in self-indulgence by the Coen brothers and whatever other 'artist' felt we had to be subjected to this drivel. To paraphrase another reviewer - it has no action, no suspense, no plot, no ending... Don't waste your time unless you are into these types of films. The main character is bewildered by normal aspects of life, has lost all control of/influence over his family, and apparently has no backbone. He doesn't react normally to shocking events, and takes no steps to take control of his life. OK - he talks to some Rabbis, who are pretty useless. Gentiles are treated as if they're an alien species. If I was Jewish I'd be embarrassed and mad at the producers of such stereotypes in the 21st century - and boring ones to boot!