Review of A Serious Man (2009) by Callum R — 04 Dec 2012

A Serious Man: An astounding addition to the Coen catalogue and contains the duo's trademark wit, style and displaced humour. The pair's most downbeat film to date and one which leaves an open ended question of faith and love.

The script is incredibly deep after the star-studded routine of Burn After Reading and the enjoyable yet lacking thrill of No Country For Old Men. The philosophical debate on offer here is so touching while avoiding pretention that I'm at odds how it failed to win the best original screenplay at the Oscar's.

A Serious Man takes the mid-life-crisis and depression of Synecdoche, but without the grand scale and emotional tormoil that Kaufmans film exhibited. Still A Serious Man is, in my mind, the coen's best film of the decade, and easily their most interesting, intelligent and provoking.

Whether this is a true comedy will have mainstream cinema goers stuck with a qualm stance, but there is no denying the fluent camerawork, naturalistic performances in the usual extraordinary circumstances that so often plague the coen's mind.

Bare in mind this is no Barton Fink though the two share similar stories with their protagonist. The downright weird ending is either a surreal plight of a families mind, or a reminder that we are never entirely in control of our lives, and the futility in reaching our dreams.