A Serious Man (2009)
English/Hebrew- Dark Comedy/Drama
Rated “R”
Runtime- 106 min.
dir. Joel and Ethan Coen
This being a recent Coen brothers film, I certainly did have some expectations coming in. That said, you probably shouldn’t, because it might ruin the movie for you.
Story/Writing: 1/2
Kind of a strange story arc, with not a whole lot of rising or falling action. In a strange way, it almost works out.
Acting: 1.5/2
Good character performances all around. Some hit a little bit close to home, becasue I’ve actually known people like Uncle Arthur (Richard Kind) and Sarah Gopnik (Jessica McManus).
Photography/Set: 1/2
A very minimalistic photographic style doesn’t seem to work as well as it did in Barton Fink. Probably because there is significantly less action in each scene.
Sound/FX: 1.5/2
What there is is good, but there isn’t a lot.
Misc: 1/2
VERDICT: 6/10
Pretty watchable, especially if you’re a sucker for some schadenfreude.
