A Serious Man [Blu-ray] | ![A Serious Man [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51h8zdHqZ6L._SL160_.jpg) | Actors: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed, Aaron Wolff
Studio: Universal Studios
Category: DVD
List Price: $26.98
Buy Used: $10.30
as of 9/10/2010 15:42 CDT details
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Seller: entertainmentcentral
Rating:  reviews
Sales Rank: 4295
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: Blu-ray
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Running Time: 106 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 5.3 x 0.4
MPN: 025195054393
UPC: 025195054393
EAN: 0025195054393
ASIN: B002E2M5IC
Theatrical Release Date: 2009
Release Date: February 9, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
A Midwestern physics professor faces changes in his life when his wife prepares to leave him, his job is threatened, and different advice from three r
Amazon.com
Joel and Ethan Coen make movies like nobody else's, but even by their standards A Serious Man is in a class by itself: a complete original that's one of the brothers' best. After a deeply weird Yiddish folk-tale prologue set in 19th-century Poland (and framed in the old 1.33:1 format), the picture shifts to the region and era of the Coens' own upbringing, a Minneapolis suburb in 1967. Larry Gopnik (a superbly concentrated portrait in comic anguish by Michael Stuhlbarg) is a college physics prof facing a welter of crises and distractions: review by the tenure committee, son Danny's bar mitzvah, a cryptic-verging-on-sinister protest from a Korean-American student, the alienation of wife Judith's affections by widower Sy Ableman, the ongoing encroachment of brother Arthur and his sebaceous cyst--and don't even mention the proto-Nazi who lives next door. All these, and more, form a screenplay of such intricacy that the blackly comic tensions of one shaggy-dog narrative strand leap synapse-like to another; the movie becomes a symphony of metaphysical dread. Working again with world-class cameraman Roger Deakins and editing, as always, under the pseudonym Roderick Jaynes, the Coens maintain impeccable control over the movie's look and timing. This is more crucial than ever, given that in the precarious universe they define, "actions have consequences." Then again, so does nonaction; not ordering "the monthly main selection" from the Columbia Record Club means you've ordered it. The main-title credits almost flaunt the fact that most of the cast members will be unfamiliar to us (though they all deliver); best known are Richard Kind as Arthur, Adam Arkin as Larry's divorce lawyer, and Michael Lerner (the studio boss in Barton Fink) doing a hilarious, wordless cameo as Solomon Schlutz. Special praise is due Fred Melamed, seizing the role of a lifetime as the unctuous Sy Ableman; Amy Landecker as Mrs. Samsky, the multifariously zoned-out siren who's Larry's other next-door neighbor; and Ari Hoptman as Arlen, Larry's mealy-mouthed academic colleague who can't resist hinting at the latest rumblings from the tenure committee, even if he can't really say anything. --Richard T. Jameson
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| Customer Reviews:
 Coen Philosophy, Graduate Level September 9, 2010
Kari Murphy (The Horizon)
I got a lot more from this subtle, provocative movie after reading some of the excellent reviews (GP, you ROCK!)...and will not attempt to pretend i understand "Schrodinger's cat" or the eccentricities and significance of modern, or traditional, Judaism. The movie has great depth and incomparable symbolism, however, I would offer one suggestion....you really have to be in the "Coen Mood" to appreciate this movie. I am going to re-watch the Big Lebowski...and am thrilled about potentially new perceptions...
 A serious waste of time August 29, 2010
none (none)
Although I usually enjoy coen brothers movies, this one never really comes to any sort of end,
almost none of the numerous subplots has any resolution.
Avoid August 18, 2010
Elliott (L.A.)
1 out of 3 found this review helpful
Avoid this movie. It's the forgettable story of Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor. It's meticulously set in 1967, for reasons made (somewhat) clear in the film.
Gopnik suffers a series of humiliations. His wife betrays him. Her lover mocks him. His lazy leech of a brother burdens him. A failing student tries to bribe him, and rudely confronts him when he rejects the bribe. His teenage children barely notice when he gets kicked out of his house and moves to a cheap motel. Three rabbis do not offer him the solace that he desperately seeks. In fact, one of the rabbis confuses him by telling an absurd story that eats up a big chunk of the film. And the above list probably only covers about half of Gopnik's woes.
I don't blame the actors. They did their best with a very weak story, and some of the performances, including Stuhlbarg's, were impressive. Hence the two stars.
I have seen and thoroughly enjoyed five other Coen brothers films, so I know how talented they are. But they just do not deliver with this one.
Perhaps their goal here is to show us that life is unfair and that bad things happen to good, honest, and, yes, "serious" people. Bad things also happen to people like Gopnik, who, if you think about it, isn't really all that "good." The big problem is we knew all of this before we hit the play button. And the theme of good people suffering has been presented far more effectively elsewhere. Some reviewers have mentioned the Book of Job.
 A Good Man July 23, 2010
Stephen M. Prescott (Minneapolis, Minnesota United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
A good man cannot be harmed . . . - Socrates
But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. - Jesus Christ
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There are two ways to be a serious man in the manner in which the term is understood in this movie. One way is to be recognized by society as the kind of man who can reward his friends and punish his enemies, a man of consequence, a man to be taken seriously. The other way is to be in full possession of your soul. The eponymous hero of this movie, Larry Gopnik (a physics professor played with great skill by Michael Stuhlbarg) is of the second type. To the eyes of the world, he is a timid man of little consequence. But God, who sees all things, knows otherwise and sends him sorrows so that his soul might bear fruit.
His wife leaves him for another man who, while pretending to be his friend, is secretly conspiring to get Larry denied tenure at his college. One of his students tries to bribe him into giving him a passing grade and when Larry refuses, threatens a lawsuit. His troglodyte neighbor bullies him. His teenage children, being teenage children, can see his predicament and yet are too wrapped up in their own petty concerns to give him the affection and companionship he needs. In desperation, Larry seeks out, in succession, the advise of three Rabbais who, like the friends of Job in the Bible, offer nothing. Larry is overwhelmed with no one left to turn to.
What does Larry do? Instead of striking back, he simply absorbs the insults and cruelty. When his wife and her lover suggest he move out of his own house to a seedy motel, he quietly complies. He carries on with each situation by ascertaining the most civil, the most considerate response until, at the end of the film, things turn around and each burden resolves to a tolerably good conclusion, seemingly by itself. Mysteriously, God laid these burdens on Larry and, just as mysteriously, He lifted them. It was all for a purpose. The burdens could have been born with such grace only by a serious man. The trial is over.
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