A Serious Man

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A Serious Man
Directed by Joel Coen
Ethan Coen
Produced by Ethan Coen
Joel Coen
Written by Ethan Coen
Joel Coen
Starring Michael Stuhlbarg
Richard Kind
Sari Wagner Lennick
Fred Melamed
Aaron Wolff
Music by Carter Burwell
Cinematography Roger Deakins
Editing by Roderick Jaynes
Studio Relativity Media
StudioCanal
Working Title Films
Mike Zoss Productions
Distributed by Focus Features
Release date(s) October 2, 2009 (limited)
Running time 105 min.
Country United States
Language English
Budget $7,000,000
Gross revenue $7,467,000[1]

A Serious Man is a drama film written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. It was released on October 2, 2009 in the United States. The film loosely retells the Jewish biblical story of Job in the modern American era.[2] The film has attracted a highly positive critical response, currently holding an 86% 'Fresh' Rating at Rotten Tomatoes.

Contents

[edit] Plot

Minnesota, 1967. Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is a Jewish physics professor who is being considered for tenure at the university. His son Danny (Aaron Wolff) lives in constant fear of a physically intimidating Hebrew school classmate named Mike Fagle (Jon Kaminski Jr.), to whom Danny owes twenty dollars for marijuana. His teacher catches him listening to a portable radio in class and confiscates it.

Larry's brother Arthur (Richard Kind) is sleeping on the couch and obsessively writing in a notebook. He purports it to be a scientific research work called The Mentaculus determining the fundamental mathematical relationships that tie all natural laws together.

A Korean-born student, Clive (David Kang), is about to flunk Larry's class and lose his scholarship. He protests that Larry's exams are unfair; that he understands the illustrative stories about Schrödinger's Cat but does not understand the math. After the student leaves the office, Larry spots a thick envelope left by Clive and containing a great sum of money.

Larry's wife Judith (Sari Lennick) is seeking a divorce and needs a get (a Jewish divorce), so she can marry widower Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed). At the insistence of Judith and Sy, Larry and Arthur eventually move into a nearby motel, the “Jolly Roger”. Judith has withdrawn all of the couple's money from their joint accounts, leaving Larry penniless.

Larry enlists the services of a sympathetic divorce attorney, and to cope with his undeserved streak of bad luck, Larry turns to the faith. The rabbis he speaks with are all, for various reasons, obtuse and unhelpful. Larry's spiritual crisis reaches a breaking point when he and Sy are involved in seemingly simultaneous car crashes miles apart. Larry is unharmed, but Sy is killed.

On the day of Danny's bar mitzvah, the boy, high on marijuana, finds himself struggling through the ceremony, but overcomes his haze and is able to perform. Larry appears proud and moved by what he sees. Judith apologizes to Larry for all the trouble that has occurred recently. Following his bar mitzvah, Danny is led into the senior rabbi's office. The elderly rabbi returns Danny's transistor radio to him, counseling Danny to "be a good boy."

Larry's department head compliments Larry on Danny's bar mitzvah and hints that he will earn tenure. Upon receiving the bill for Arthur's criminal lawyer he decides to pass Clive after all, and take the bribe left in his desk. His doctor calls him and asks to see him to talk about the results of a chest X-ray. At the same time a massive tornado is approaching Danny's school.

[edit] Cast and characters

  • Open auditions for the roles of Danny and Sarah were held on May 4, 2008, at the Sabes Jewish Community Center in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, one of the scheduled shooting locations for the film. Open auditions for the role of Sarah were also held in June 2008 in Chicago, Illinois.[citation needed]

[edit] Production

Considerable attention was paid to the setting; it was important to the Coens to find a neighborhood of original-looking suburban rambler homes as they would have appeared in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, in the mid-1960s. Locations were scouted in nearby communities Edina, Richfield, Brooklyn Center, and Hopkins[3] before a suitable location was found in Bloomington.[4] The look of the film is partly based on the Brad Zellar book Suburban World: The Norling Photographs, a collection of photographs of Bloomington in the 1950s and 60s.[5]

Location filming began on September 8, 2008, in Minnesota.

Long time collaborator Roger Deakins rejoined the Coen brothers as cinematographer, following his absence from Burn After Reading. This is the tenth film he has worked on with the Coen brothers.[6] Costume designer Mary Zophres returns for her ninth collaboration with the directors.[6]

An office scene was shot at Normandale Community College in Bloomington. The film also used a set built in the school's library, as well as a small section of the second floor science building hallway. The synagogue is the B'Nai Emet Synagogue in St. Louis Park.

The Coen brothers also shot some scenes in St. Olaf College's old science building because of its similar period architecture.[7][8]

Filming was also scheduled to occur on October 24, 2008, at Cooper's grocery store located in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Filming wrapped on November 6, 2008, after 44 days, ahead of schedule and within budget.[9]

[edit] Release

The film had a limited release on October 2, 2009, in the United States. The film has an R rating from the MPAA.[10] It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2009.[11] A trailer was released online on July 30, 2009.[12]

[edit] Reception

Reviews have been mostly positive, with some critics calling it the Coen brothers' most mature film to date. Roger Ebert said the film "bears every mark of a labor of love,"[13] and Variety's Todd McCarthy commented that "the Coens' filmmaking skills are sharply attentive," and that A Serious Man is "the kind of picture you get to make after you've won an Oscar".[14][13] Claudia Puig of USA Today writes, "A Serious Man is a wonderfully odd, bleakly comic and thoroughly engrossing film. Underlying the grim humor are serious questions about faith, family, mortality and misfortune."[15] TIME critic Richard Corliss describes it as "disquieting" and "haunting."[16] Christy Lemire called it "the Coens' most thoughtful and personal film" and gave it three-and-a-half stars out of four.[17]

Not all critics agree, however. The Wall Street Journal's Joe Morgenstern disliked what he saw as misanthropy in the film, saying that "...their caricatures range from dis-likable through despicable, with not a smidgen of humanity to redeem them."[18] David Denby from The New Yorker enjoyed the look and feel of the film, but found fault with the script and characterization: "A Serious Man, like Burn After Reading, is in their bleak, black, belittling mode, and it's hell to sit through... As a piece of movie-making craft, A Serious Man is fascinating; in every other way, it's intolerable."[19]

The film currently holds an 86% 'Fresh' Rating at Rotten Tomatoes, based on 105 reviews.

[edit] References

  1. ^ A Serious Man at Box Office Mojo
  2. ^ Persall, Steve (November 1, 2009). "Coen brothers' 'A Serious Man' has troubles of Job without uplift". St. Petersburg Times. http://www.tampabay.com/features/movies/coen-brothers-a-serious-man-has-troubles-of-job-without-uplift/1048550. Retrieved November 22, 2009. 
  3. ^ Campbell, Tim (September 28, 2007). "Coen brothers to get 'Serious' in Minnesota". Star Tribune. http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/11525326.html. Retrieved November 22, 2009. 
  4. ^ Covert, Colin (September 6, 2008). "In Twin Cities, Coen brothers shoot from heart". Star Tribune. http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/27957494.html. Retrieved November 22, 2009. 
  5. ^ "Serious' film was nostalgic pleasure for Coen brothers". Twincities.com. http://209.85.229.132/search?q=cache:JnFyMieYSe0J:www.twincities.com/ci_13430357%3Fsource%3Drss_viewed+brad+zellar+suburban+world+coen&cd=5&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl=uk&client=firefox-a. Retrieved 2009-11-04. 
  6. ^ a b "Production Begins on the Coen's A Serious Man". Comingsoon.net. http://www.comingsoon.net/news/movienews.php?id=48634. Retrieved September 9 2008. 
  7. ^ Henke, David (2008-08-19), "Coen brothers will use St. Olaf for movie", Northfield News, http://northfieldnews.com/news.php?viewStory=45735 
  8. ^ Gonnerman, David (2008-10-09), "St. Olaf gets 'Serious'", St. Olaf College News, http://fusion.stolaf.edu/news/index.cfm?fuseaction=NewsDetails&id=4469 
  9. ^ "It's a wrap! Coen brothers' latest film is in the can". StarTribune.com. http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/movies/33945219.html?elr=KArksi8cyaiUeyD8_o8cyaiUiD3aPc:_Yyc:aUU. Retrieved 2008-11-11. 
  10. ^ "Focus Feature's release dates". Hollywood Reporter. http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/film/news/e3i64ab5b30222e725f5d03b4bd70f50c13. Retrieved 2009-01-14. 
  11. ^ "Oscar-winning Coens head home with "A Serious Man"". Reuters. http://www.reuters.com/article/entertainmentNews/idUSTRE58C1LM20090913. Retrieved 2009-09-14. 
  12. ^ "Check out the trailer for the Coens' A Serious Man". Onion AV Club. http://www.avclub.com/articles/check-out-the-trailer-for-the-coens-a-serious-man,31054/. Retrieved 2009-07-30. 
  13. ^ a b Ebert, Roger (October 7, 2009). "A Serious Man". Chicago Sun-Times. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20091007/REVIEWS/910079998. Retrieved November 22, 2009. 
  14. ^ McCarthy, Todd (September 11, 2009). "A Serious Man". Variety. http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117941026.html?categoryid=2863&cs=1. Retrieved November 22, 2009. 
  15. ^ "'A Serious Man' is a seriously good departure for Coens". USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/reviews/2009-10-01-serious-man_N.htm. Retrieved 2009-10-02. 
  16. ^ "A Serious Man: The Coen Brothers' Jewish Question". TIME. http://www.time.com/time/arts/article/0,8599,1922024,00.html. Retrieved 2009-10-02. 
  17. ^ "Seriously funny troubles abound in `Serious Man'". Associated Press. http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gg4RAYV9Lo4IE5yVX6GW-WGvp_lgD9B19UB80. Retrieved 2009-10-02. 
  18. ^ "'A Serious Man'". Wall Street Journal. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704471504574446962410393646.html. Retrieved 2009-10-02. 
  19. ^ Denby, David. "Gods and Victims: “A Serious Man” and “Capitalism: A Love Story.”". The New Yorker. http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/cinema/2009/10/05/091005crci_cinema_denby. Retrieved 2009-10-02. 

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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