“A Serious Man” A Serious Film

A Serious Film

“Hotshots” looks at a movie!

A SERIOUS MAN is the latest film by Joel and Ethan Coen, who write their films together, direct them together, edit them together, and finally share their awards together, which this film is likely to win more for them.

Ostensibly it is a comedy, because it contains many laughs even into the closing credits, but it also contains serious themes that can cause the audience to think about it long after the last laugh has burst forth.

After all, any film that mentions quantum physics, the Heisenberg uncertainty principle, and Schroedinger’s cat, as well as has its basis in the Book of Job from the Bible can’t be all comedy.

The story takes place in 1967 in a suburb of Minneapolis, and it is about the life and hardships of Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a local college.

Everything seems to be going just fine in Larry’s life, until one day from out of the blue his wife, Judith, tells Larry that she has been seeing one of Larry’s friends, Sy Ableman, and she says, “In short, I think it’s about time that we started talking about a divorce.”

Larry is stunned, especially about the part that Judith would be romantically involved with Sy Ableman, who even comes over to the house to talk to Larry in his unctuous manner.

Then everything that Larry thought was one way turns out to be another.

Larry is asked to move out of his own home and to stay at the Jolly Roger Motel, which he does.

He is being considered for tenure at the college where he teaches, and he keeps getting regular updates from the head of the tenure committee, but whereas the updates were favorable at first, eventually they become worse and worse.

One of Larry’s students appears to have offered a bribe of substantial money in exchange for a better grade in the class.

Larry’s teenage son and teenage daughter are constantly complaining to Larry about what he considers to be trivial matters.

Larry seeks the counsel of one local rabbi after another, but gets no help whatsoever.

And to top it all off, Larry keeps getting called by a representative of the Columbia Record Club about payment for records Larry never ordered or received.

A SERIOUS MAN is a serious film disguised as a comedy.

I’m Dan Culberson and this is “Hotshots.”