Movie: A Serious Man

Posted on January 12th, 2011 by Ms. SP

I think the Coen Brothers got A Serious Man made because they had just won an Oscar for No Country for Old Men. Otherwise, I think they would have been hard pressed to get this one beyond their Indy base.

The movie is a classic case of when bad things happen to fairly-average, lives-of-quiet-desperation people. There is no real narrative plot to speak of. There are no character arcs.

It depicts a series of events in the main character’s life which, although dramatic, are pretty run of the mill. He’s a physics professor at a small Midwestern school. He has a wife and two kids.

Even the fact that it is 1967 is fairly irrelevant.

The elements that set this movie apart are the scene and shot creations. This is a movie that feels deliberately made. Each image is gorgeous. The Coens’ have always excelled at the crucial skill of editing, and that helped them a lot here as well. I could feel the timing and the choices of what was left out and what was left in for each character.

A Serious Man is definitely not for everyone, but in a year where we also got Up in the Air and An Education as Best Picture nominees, I can see why they included this in the ten. I think these three share qualities in terms of tone creation and the craft of filmmaking.

If I Picked the Oscars (in order of my vote)

Best Picture:

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