A Serious Man

Today I wanted to post my take on a film I saw recently; the Cohen brother’s film A Serious Man. Like any good movie, and most Cohen brother’s movies, this one leaves you with a bit of an empty feeling inside when you leave the theatre, requiring you to reflect on the film afterward in order to fill the void. Warning to anyone who hasn’t seen the movie, DON’T READ ANY FURTHER, since my review will spoil it for you.

A SERIOUS MAN

In A Serious Man, the Cohen brother’s take us on a seemingly insipid journey into the world of Judaism, where suffering and sacrifice take center stage. The film’s title of A Serious Man could just as easily be read as A Good Man, as it seems the morality and reverence depicted in the movie as serious are synonymous with the morally good, and the depiction of earthly existence equally prosaic among both.

Thus we are thrust into the monotonous life of main character Larry Gopnik, played by Michael Stuhlburg. On onset Larry seems to live a rather normal, rural, middle class American life, where mowing the lawn, feeding the kids, and paying the bills dominate the daily tedium. It is just when life seems to be settling down for the middle aged Gopnik and his life work is about to come to fruition, gaining tenure at the local high school he teaches at, that things suddenly take a unexpected turn for the worse when his wife meekly explains to him that she wants a divorce so that she can marry another man. To make matters worse, Larry’s wife’s illicit lover, Sy Ableman, not only expects Larry to condone the love affair but also seems to want to become friends with Larry. Of course Larry’s wife and Sy also believe that it would be in the best interest of Larry if he moved out of his house while the divorce was being finalized.

Larry seems to be the only one able to recognize the absurd nature of the demands being placed on him, but being A Serious Man, Larry takes it all in stride and takes up residence at the local Jolly Roger Hotel, along with his burdensome-pariah-genius of a brother Arnold, who spends his days drawing a map of the known universe and draining a schist on his back. In addition to his deteriorating home life, Larry’s chances of gaining tenure are put in jeopardy by an anonymous writer who is denigrating Larry’s character in letters to the school board, while another student is simultaneously trying to bribe Larry for a passing grade while threatening to sue him for defamation.

Larry miraculously maintains a level head through all of this; that is until Sy Ableman is killed in a car accident that occurs at the exact same moment Larry gets in an unrelated car accident of his own. Of course the burden of paying for Sy’s funeral falls on Larry, who disbelievingly, almost habitually obliges. With debt mounting, a home life in shambles, and no one apparently caring for his personal satisfaction at all, Larry turns to his only outlet, his rabbis.

These rabbis prove to be just as impotent and self-centered as the rest of Larry’s acquaintances. The first rabbi is a junior rabbi who lacks the life experience to identify with Larry’s problems and is more interested in gazing pensively out the window at the parking lot. The second rabbi is more jocular, finding joy in telling parables without moral significance. The third rabbi, the most senior and respected of all the rabbis, says he is too busy "thinking" to take time to help Larry. Thus even the men of G-d, who claim to be the most serious men of all, are to wrapped up in their own personal musings and desires to help out one of their suffering parishioners.

For an hour and a half we are forced to watch the feckless Larry be kicked around and walked all over by almost every person he knows. Nothing and no one brings him comfort and no one seems to care. Certainly there must be some pay off for Larry after all this suffering; after all if anyone should be rewarded by G-d’s mercy it should be this Serious Man. Perhaps at this point in the movie we are expected to think that the Cohen’s are setting us up to see what it means to be truly pious, but knowing the Cohen’s this seems unlikely.

With Larry’s woes added to by gambling debt incurred by his brother, Larry hits bottom. With nowhere to turn and no hope in sight, Larry engages in his first immoral, unserious act of the movie when he accepts his student’s monetary bribe for a passing grade. Not a moment after this moral transgression Larry’s doctor calls, ominously requesting that Larry stop by his office to receive some news that can only be given in person. In the very next scene the school is evacuated due to a tornado warning. Outside the school Larry’s son tries to pay a bully for weed he bought off him, but before the compensation is completed Larry’s son notices a menacing, low swirling cloud forming across the road. Like a scene pulled out of the old testament, or Twister, the sky grows dark, the winds begin to howl, and it seems as if G-d will have his atonement when; cut to black, role credits.

Just like that the movie ends, and it looks as if the Cohen’s have sucker punched us with an abrupt, unsatisfying ending once again. But on second glance it is in fact the ending that gives the movie any significance at all. For after sitting through two hours of Larry’s bleak and depressing life, which really never builds or alleviates, we are left with no reconciliation, no reward, no payoff; and it is at that moment we realize what the Cohen’s are trying to do.

The Cohen’s showed us the plight of the Serious Man: a life full of pain, suffering and indignation from those less serious and more concerned with pursuing worldly desires. But this is the vary nature of reverence, both in Judaism and Christianity, that states that to be truly pious one must at all time stay faithful to the law even when this brings much discomfort, for the payoff does not come until the afterlife.

As we watch this movie, however, we are left to wonder if this is all our life on earth really amounts to, if we can really condemn Larry for his one menial moral transgression that only resulted from a lack of apathy from everyone else who indulges in moral transgressions? Of course if there is a payoff in the afterlife then Larry is well founded in his seriousness, but the Cohen’s don’t show us that payoff on screen, they cut to black, forcing you to make that decision for yourself, by either taking the leap of faith or refuting it.

If the Cohen’s resolved Larry’s issue, if they assured you that everything works out eventually, then this would not require faith, it would simply be fact, and fact and faith cannot coincide. The very definition of faith requires suspicion, since if I know God exists as fact then I require no faith to believe in him, just as I need no faith to believe that my computer is white, or 2 + 2 = 4.

Thus the onus is on you to decide whether to take the leap of faith or not, for it really is a leap that can never be affirmed by facts, and if it could it would not be faith. Was Larry’s misfortune after he commits his sin an act of retribution by God? Or is the concept of loading oneself up with burden and spending a life suffering to achieve a reward in another life that may or may not exist, while others pursue pleasure in this life, fallacious? This is the conflict involved with religion, this is the leap of faith: denying yourself the pleasures of a life you know you have for a afterlife, but find very little evidence for on earth. Depending on your point of view, the Cohen’s Serious Man may seem like a Good Man to some, or a Foolish Man to others. Which is correct? The Cohen’s won’t help you decide, they cut to black.