Fletch's Film Review: A Serious Man

I'm not quite sure of how to do a proper review of A Serious Man. It would mostly consist of me using the words "alienated" and "confused," along with a thesaurus full of synonyms for said words, and perhaps some examples of why I felt that way. Instead, I've decided to do a live blog lookback, in which I attempt to recall what was going through my head at certain points of the film, using the minutes into the film as markers. Hopefully, this will give you some insight into how I felt watching the Coen Brothers latest opus.

0:02 - Well, that was an interesting fable. Always nice to see Picket Fences' own Fyvush Finkel getting work, if only because I like saying his name so much. It sounds like the name of a rabbit from some childhood story or something. Speaking of which, here's a fable I just found online that makes loads more sense than the one I just watched:

Some boys, playing near a pond, saw a number of frogs in the water and began to pelt them with stones.
They killed several of them, when one of the frogs, lifting his head out of the water, cried out:
"Pray stop, my boys: what is sport to you, is death to us."

See, that one actually has a meaning that isn't hard to infer, and it relates to my review of the movie.

0:07: Always nice to hear Jefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love." I know little of the band outside of three songs, two of which are absolutely brilliant ("Love" and "White Rabbit"), the third of which (yeah, yeah, Starship, whatever) is an absolute abomination ("We Built This City"). Anyway, here's a video for your enjoyment:



0:08 - Haha, listen to that! The first of 247 Jewish references/in-jokes that I don't get. Terrific! This is amplified by the fact that Mrs. Fletch and I are apparently some of the only goys in the theater. What's that? You don't know what a goy is? Have no fear - you'll hear the term 92 more times throughout the course of the film; plenty of time for you to pray to Hashem to have him help you figure it out.

0:12 - An Asian kid named "Clive?" I love it.

0:17 - So, the most famous person in this movie is Richard Kind? Really? I mean, I like the guy and all, and I'm not opposed to high-profile films starring relative nobodies...it's just shocking. Shows you the kind of pull (chutzpah?) the Coens have.

0:25 - Say what you will about the relative coherence/excellence of the Coens' collective films (I admire and/or love most of them, though I know they aren't for everyone), is there anyone out there that writes better characters, from their leads down to the bittiest of bit characters? I wish the entire film was about Fred Melamed's character, Sy Abelman; he's as hilarious as he is creepy.

0:42 - Whoa, scratch that bit about Kind - Adam Arkin just popped up, playing a lawyer. He's no Alan, but the man was the star of that medical show that aired opposite ER that nobody watched, Chicago Hope. Advantage Adam.

0:50 - There goes the audience laughing their heads off...at yet another character name. You'd think the name "Solomon Schultz" (or whatever the name was at the time) was Hebrew for "Poopy McFartyPants" and that I was in with an audience of five year olds. Don't mind me sitting here with a blank expression yet again.

0:53 - I have to give it up for the Coens: they kick ass at taking care of the little people that inhabit their films, and do an excellent job at bringing them back time and again, all the while doing it in small, subtle ways that don't make it feel like "The Judd Apatow Gang!" Eagle-eyed Coen watchers will catch both sympathetic Fargo schlub Mike Yanagita (Steve Park) and Barton Fink studio exec Jack Lipnick (Michael Lerner, aka that guy that kinda looks like how Ebert used to look) during Serious.

1:02: OMG - even better. FF-UN potential member George Wyner pops up playing a rabbi. For those unaware, Wyner played the attorney to the former Mrs. Fletch in Fletch and Fletch Lives, which means that I will always welcome his appearance onscreen, even if he was an ass to Fletch. No familiar red Oldsmobuick in sight, however.

1:09: Is this film meant to solidify certain Jewish stereotypes? Am I supposed to sympathize with our protagonist, Larry Gopnik? Wikipedia talks about "his undeserved streak of bad luck." Say WHAT? Bad luck? The guy's a schlub, a ninny, a carpet for those around him to walk all over. I never once felt for his plight.

1:12: I must admit, I appreciated the full frontal of a certain female character. I did not see that one coming.

1:16: In a Jewish film littered with dream sequences, would it have been too much to ask for a Bill Lumbergh sighting? Yeeaahhhh....

1:24: Will Larry do the right thing? Will he get his tenure? Will his child be able to watch F Troop static-free? All these questions and more may or may not be answered, but I most certainly won't care. I've checked out, man.

1:28: I do have two burning questions, however (spoilers ahead). One, if the Gopniks' goy next-door neighbors are so anti-Jew, why do they live in a neighborhood seemingly dominated by them? Also, Larry's kid had his radio taken away whilst listening to "Somebody to Love." Later, the rabbi recites the lyrics and whatnot, referencing said song as if he knew the boy loved it and/or was listening to it. But this was pre-cassette tapes and pre-CDs; the boy was listening to a radio, and the Jeff Airplane song was long since over by the time the rabbi got his hands on the radio. What gives?

1:42: Cool - another ambiguous ending from the Coens. You know they're artsy because they favor endings that make little sense, leaving the audience to come up with their own conclusions for what they just saw. Here's what I saw: a bunch of random shit from their childhood that mattered little to me and made even less sense, featuring a protagonist that I wanted to slap in the face, along with a handful of colorful characters. But at least it all centered on a badass song, right?



Fletch's Film Rating:

	"You seem a decent fellow. I hate to kill you."

Shaky Cam Rating (details):	LAMBScore: