A Serious Man (2009)

*ing: Michael Stuhlbarg, Sari Lennick, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed
Genre: Drama, Dark Comedy

A very intriguing drama with a touch of dark humor. I must confess the writer, director duo Ethan Coen and Joel Coen deserve a huge round of applause for crafting this impressive movie. I ought to point out that the way the film starts with a somewhat obscure short story in Yiddish language featuring a dybbuk (a living person possessed by a wandering spirit) can be a bit confusing ... I was left wondering why that short story was highlighted at the very beginning ... and ... it all makes sense in the last few seconds of the climax scene.

A Serious Man is a story set in late 60's and features a Jewish family man Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) who lives in a Jewish neighborhood of Minnesota and teaches Physics for a living. Larry's somewhat balanced and perfect life is disturbed when his wife out of the blue asks for a divorce and as if that is not enough Larry's job as a Physics teacher starts looking at stake due to a troublesome student, some false allegations and a string of anonymous letters and to add to Larry's miseries he has the added responsibility of nurturing his mentally challenged brother Arthur (Richard Kind) who brushes with the law and is now facing criminal charges against him. In short ... Larry's life looks gloomy and Larry is a piece of nervous wreck who thinks it's God's doings and is visiting Rabbi's to seek an explanation on how God works and how to understand his actions and make sense out of it so that Larry can fight it out and probably emerge victorious.

Bottom-line: Cohen brothers have once again managed to impress me with their writing and direction. I had liked their earlier drama, dark comedy 'Burn after Reading', this one outperforms the previous release. If you do not know Cohen brothers, watch this one and get to know them, positively a must watch.

IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1019452/
Rottentomatoes: http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/a_serious_man/