By Perrin Drumm, you can read more on the sundancechannel.com
Though the rest of A SERIOUS MAN is set in late 60s suburbia, the Coen brothers take us first to a snowy night in Yiddish-speaking old country for a little morality tale. The tale, however, is less morality and more of a warning that no matter what, no matter how ludicrous and illogical she may be, the wife is always right. Flash forward to the Minnesota suburbs in 1967 where Larry Gopnik (in an incredible performance by Michael Stuhlbarg) is a middle-aged math teacher with two bratty kids and a math whiz brother (Richard Kind) who sleeps on the couch and spends most of the day draining a cyst on his neck. It’s not exactly ideal and Judith (Sari Lennick), his wife, wants a divorce.
So begins the downward spiral that will consume Larry’s life.
What makes the mid-life crisis plot line work so well here (aside from great characters, great writing and great acting) is the fact that Larry doesn’t just have one problem that if he can only locate and fix, his life will shift back into place. Things may have started to go wrong with the divorce, but by the end of the film that’s the least of his worries. His life is messy, but gradually, and without any kind of Hallelujah moment, we start to see a glimmer of hope for him (a very dim one; He’s still living at the Jolly Rodger). Larry is plodding his way through what he probably thinks is the biggest crisis he’ll ever have to deal with and afterwards, certainly, things will settle down. But if he’s learned anything about Hashem it’s that he works in mysterious ways. When one problem is cleared up, what’s to stop another from taking its place?
A SERIOUS MAN opens Oct. 2nd
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