A Serious Man

A Serious Man
A man standing on the roof of a house Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Joel Coen Ethan Coen
Written by	Ethan Coen Joel Coen
Produced by	Ethan Coen Joel Coen
Starring	Michael Stuhlbarg Richard Kind Sari Wagner Lennick Fred Melamed Aaron Wolff
Cinematography	Roger Deakins
Edited by	Roderick Jaynes
Music by	Carter Burwell
Production companies	Relativity Media StudioCanal Working Title Films Mike Zoss Productions
Distributed by	Focus Features
Release date	October 2, 2009 (limited)
Running time	105 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$7,000,000
Box office	$12,173,060

A Serious Man is a dramatic/darkly comic film written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. It was released on October 2, 2009 in the United States. Starring Michael Stuhlbarg, Sari Lennick, and Richard Kind, it tells the story of an ordinary man who is trying to find balance and understanding in the world. The film has attracted a highly positive critical response, including a Golden Globe nomination for Michael Stuhlbarg and a place on the American Film Institute's Top 10 Films of 2009.

Plot

In Minneapolis in 1967, Jewish professor of physics and family man, Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) lives with his troubled family. His son Danny (Aaron Wolff) habitually smokes marijuana. Larry's wife Judith (Sari Lennick) wants a divorce so she can be with family friend and widower, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed). Daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus) appears to be stealing money from her father to get a nose job, and his brother Arthur (Richard Kind) has been crashing on their couch for several months writing a dense numerological treatise. At Judith and Sy's insistence, Larry and Arthur move to a nearby motel, after which Judith empties their joint financial accounts leaving Larry penniless. One of Larry's students, Clive, claims his exams are unfair; after he leaves, Larry finds an envelope stuffed with thousands of dollars, and is furious that Clive would try to bribe him. Larry is up for tenure, but the committee has received anonymous defamatory letters about him.

To cope with his troubles, Larry turns to his faith and seeks advice from three rabbis. The first, a very young rabbi, fumbles through platitudes about maintaining fresh perspectives in order to see God. The second, his regular rabbi, recounts a tale of a Jewish dentist who turned to him for advice after discovering the Hebrew phrase "Help Me" engraved on the back of an unaware patient's teeth. When the rabbi finishes his story, Larry asks if the dentist ever found out why the writing was there, and asks what became of the patient. The rabbi responds, "Who cares?" The third, Rabbi Marshak is an elderly senior rabbi and a highly respected figure who no longer does pastoral work. He limits his appearances towards only congratulating individuals completing their bar mitzvahs. Unable to gain an audience with the rabbi after numerous attempts, Larry is finally turned away by his secretary.

On the day of Danny's bar mitzvah, Danny arrives high on marijuana and initially struggles to complete the ceremony. During the event, Judith expresses regret over the recent strife, and tells him that Sy always liked him and even wrote letters to the tenure committee for him. Though still high, after completing the ceremony Danny is taken to Rabbi Marshak's office, where the rabbi quotes a line from "Somebody To Love", a song by Jefferson Airplane. He then returns a transistor radio that was confiscated from the boy earlier, and Danny is relieved that it still has the $20 tucked into it that he owes his dealer.

Later, Larry's department head hints that he will be granted tenure. After receiving the bill from an attorney he has put on retainer, he agonizes for a few moments then accepts the bribe from Clive's father and gives the boy a passing grade. Just then, Larry's doctor calls about the results of a chest X-ray he took at the start of the film. Meanwhile, a massive tornado is approaching Danny's school. While the teacher struggles to unlock the shelter, Danny and his dealer watch the oncoming funnel cloud as Danny considers settling the $20 debt.

Cast and characters

• Michael Stuhlbarg as Larry Gopnik. An actor relatively unknown to cinema audiences, Stuhlbarg was cast on the strength of his theatrical work in New York. He was initially auditioned for the prologue but was called back to read for the parts of Arthur and Larry, eventually winning the lead role.
• Richard Kind as Arthur Gopnik
• Sari Wagner Lennick as Judith Gopnik. Lennick was inspired by the confidence the Coens had in her; how they consulted her on the character details and allowed her to make the character her own.
• Fred Melamed as Sy Ableman
• Aaron Wolff as Danny Gopnik
• Jessica McManus as Sarah Gopnik
• Adam Arkin as Don Milgram
• George Wyner as Rabbi Nachtner
• Amy Landecker as Mrs. Samsky
• Katherine Borowitz as Mimi Nudell
• Fyvush Finkel as the "Dybbuk?" (of Reb Groshkover)
• Simon Helberg as Rabbi Scott Ginzler
• Andrew S. Lentz as Mark Sallerson
• Jack Swiler as Howard Altar
• Tim Harlan-Marks as Hebrew school bus driver
• Benjy Portnoe as Ronnie Nudell
• Brent Braunschweig as Mitch Brandt
• Ari Hoptman as Arlen Finkle
• Michael Lerner as Solomon Schlutz
• David Kang as Clive
• Steve Park as Clive's father

Open auditions for the roles of Danny and Sarah were held on May 4, 2008, at the Sabes Jewish Community Center in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, one of the scheduled shooting locations for the film. Open auditions for the role of Sarah were also held in June 2008 in Chicago, Illinois.

Production

Considerable attention was paid to the setting; it was important to the Coens to find a neighborhood of original-looking suburban rambler homes as they would have appeared in St. Louis Park, Minnesota, in the mid-1960s. Locations were scouted in nearby communities Edina, Richfield, Brooklyn Center, and Hopkins before a suitable location was found in Bloomington. The look of the film is partly based on the Brad Zellar book Suburban World: The Norling Photographs, a collection of photographs of Bloomington in the 1950s and 60s.

Longtime collaborator Roger Deakins rejoined the Coen brothers as cinematographer, following his absence from Burn After Reading. This is the tenth film he has worked on with the Coen brothers. Costume designer Mary Zophres returns for her ninth collaboration with the directors. The Yiddish story that introduces the film was created by the Coen Brothers, as they didn't find any folk tales they thought were suitable. They note the story has no thematic relationship to what follows other than to set the tone.

The tornado seen bearing down on Minneapolis at the film's climax has a basis in fact, referring to the 1967 Southern Minnesota tornado outbreak.

Location filming began on September 8, 2008, in Minnesota. An office scene was shot at Normandale Community College in Bloomington. The film also used a set built in the school's library, as well as a small section of the second floor science building hallway. The synagogue is the B'Nai Emet Synagogue in St. Louis Park. The Coen brothers also shot some scenes in St. Olaf College's old science building because of its similar period architecture. Filming was scheduled to occur on October 24, 2008, at Cooper's grocery store located in St. Paul, Minnesota Filming wrapped on November 6, 2008, after 44 days, ahead of schedule and within budget.

The film had a limited release on October 2, 2009, in the United States. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on September 12, 2009.

Reception

As of 25 December 2009 it has had worldwide gross earnings of $12,173,060 It has received mostly positive reviews from critics, with an aggregate score of 87% from Rotten Tomatoes, based on 173 reviews. Roger Ebert, of the Chicago Sun-Times, rated the film four out of four stars, feeling that it "bears every mark of a labor of love," and Variety's Todd McCarthy commented that "the Coens' filmmaking skills are sharply attentive," and that A Serious Man is "the kind of picture you get to make after you've won an Oscar". Claudia Puig of USA Today writes, "A Serious Man is a wonderfully odd, bleakly comic and thoroughly engrossing film. Underlying the grim humor are serious questions about faith, family, mortality and misfortune." Time critic Richard Corliss describes it as "disquieting" and "haunting." Christy Lemire called it "the Coens' most thoughtful and personal film" and gave it three-and-a-half stars out of four.

The St. Petersburg Times's Steve Persall felt it was a retelling of the Jewish biblical story of Job in the modern American era. The Wall Street Journal's Joe Morgenstern disliked what he saw as misanthropy in the film, saying that "...their caricatures range from dis-likable through despicable, with not a smidgen of humanity to redeem them." David Denby from The New Yorker enjoyed the look and feel of the film, but found fault with the script and characterization: "A Serious Man, like Burn After Reading, is in their bleak, black, belittling mode, and it's hell to sit through... As a piece of movie-making craft, A Serious Man is fascinating; in every other way, it's intolerable."

Awards

Michael Stuhlbarg was awarded the Chapin Virtuoso Award at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival and the Best Motion Picture - Comedy or Musical at the 2009 Satellite Awards. He was also nominated for Best Actor in the 67th Annual Golden Globe Awards. Roger Deakins received the Best Cinematography awards at both the 2009 Hollywood Awards and the 2009 San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards, as well as the Nikola Tesla Award at the Satellite Awards. Joel and Ethan Coen were awarded Best Original Screenplay at the 2009 National Board of Review Awards. A Serious Man is nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay in the Broadcast Film Critics Association's 15th Annual Critics' Choice Awards, and by the Boston Society of Film Critics, Best Picture by the Chicago Film Critics Association. The film was listed among the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures Top 10 Films of 2009, the American Film Institute's Best 10 movies of 2009, Satellite Awards Top 10 Best Films 2009, and the Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards Top 10 Films of 2009.

External links

• Official website
• A Serious Man at IMDb
• A Serious Man at Rotten Tomatoes
• A Serious Man at Box Office Mojo