Review of A Serious Man (2009) by Johannas C — 13 Aug 2011

The Coen brothers once again knock it out of the park. While watching this, I was in shock at how in just two short years, they could go from No Country for Old Men to writing such a complex, deep movie like this. It skillfully implements comedic elements into such a serious and depressing story, lightening it up a bit (which is what you would expect from these directors/writers) as to not bore or sadden its audience. And in actuality, it's actually pretty hilarious. But even besides the comedy, it's an extremely well-written and well-executed film that made me almost as baffled as Inception did last year. Except, rather than being difficult to figure out, A Serious Man has ridiculous amounts of possible interpretations, allowing the viewer to believe whatever they desire towards the end. And another thing to note is that, even though these actors are all somewhat unknown, they all do fantastic jobs playing these dynamic, loony characters throughout the movie. Altogether, it's a great movie, and I was very surprised to have enjoyed it this much.

80%.