| A Serious Man | |
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.png) Theatrical release poster | |
| Directed by | Joel Coen Ethan Coen |
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| Produced by |
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| Starring | |
| Cinematography | Roger Deakins |
| Edited by | Roderick Jaynes[a] |
| Music by | Carter Burwell |
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Release dates | |
Running time | 106 minutes |
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| Budget | $7 million[4] |
| Box office | $31.4 million[3] |
A Serious Man is a 2009blackcomedy-drama film[5] written, produced, edited, and directed byJoel and Ethan Coen. Set in 1967,[6] the film starsMichael Stuhlbarg as aMinnesotanJewish man whose life crumbles both professionally and personally, leading him to questions about his faith.
A Serious Man received widespread critical acclaim, including a place on both theAmerican Film Institute's andNational Board of Review of Motion Pictures's Top 10 Film Lists of 2009. It was nominated for theAcademy Award for Best Picture andBest Original Screenplay, and Stuhlbarg was nominated for aGolden Globe Award. Since its release, it has been widely considered one of the Coen brothers' best films and one of thegreatest films of the 21st century.[7][8][9][10][11]
AJewish man in a 19th-century Eastern Europeanshtetl tells his wife that he was helped on his way home by Reb Groshkover, whom he has invited in for soup. She says Groshkover is dead and the man he invited must be adybbuk. Groshkover arrives and laughs off the accusation, but she plunges an ice pick into his chest. Bleeding, he exits their home into the snowy night.
In 1967, Larry Gopnik is a professor of physics living inSt. Louis Park, Minnesota. His wife, Judith, tells him that she needs aget so she can marry widower Sy Ableman, with whom she has fallen in love. Meanwhile, their son Danny owes twenty dollars to an intimidatingHebrew school classmate for marijuana. He has the money, but it is hidden in a transistor radio that his teacher confiscated. Their daughter, Sarah, is constantly washing her hair, going out, and avoiding school. Larry's brother, Arthur, is homeless and sleeps on the couch, spending his free time filling a notebook with what he calls the "Mentaculus", a "probability map of the universe".
Clive Park, a South Korean student worried about losing his scholarship, meets with Larry in his office to argue that he should not fail the class. After he leaves, Larry finds an envelope stuffed with cash. When Larry attempts to return it, Clive's father threatens to sue Larry either for defamation if Larry accuses Clive of bribery, or for keeping the money if he does not give him a passing grade. Larry faces an impending vote on his application fortenure, and his department head informs him that anonymous letters have urged the committee to deny him. At the insistence of Judith and Sy, Larry and Arthur move into a nearby motel. Judith empties the couple's bank accounts, leaving Larry penniless; his attorney advises him to open a private account.
Larry turns to his Jewish faith for consolation. He consults a junior rabbi, Scott, who advises Larry to change his "perspective". Larry and Sy are involved in separate, simultaneous car crashes. Larry is unharmed, but Sy dies. Larry consults a second rabbi, Nachtner, for solace, who recounts an anecdote about an orthodontist who finds Hebrew inscriptions on a non-Jewish patient's teeth. Larry also tries to contact Marshak, the synagogue's senior rabbi, who is not available. At Judith's insistence, Larry pays for Sy's funeral. At the funeral, Sy is eulogized as "a serious man". Larry calls on his neighbor, Vivienne Samsky, whom he has seen sunbathing naked. She introduces him to marijuana. He later dreams that he is having sex with her, but this turns into a nightmare. Larry learns that Arthur faces charges of illegal gambling,solicitation, andsodomy.
Arthur is despondent about the charges against him, and Larry consoles him. Larry then has another nightmare in which he gives Arthur the money Clive left him and drives him to cross into Canada by boat, only for his neighbors to shoot Arthur in the neck. Larry is proud and moved by Danny'sbar mitzvah, unaware that his son is under the influence of marijuana. During the service, Judith apologizes to Larry for all the recent trouble and tells him that Sy respected him so much that he even wrote letters to the tenure committee. Danny meets with Marshak, a brief encounter in which Marshak only quotesJefferson Airplane's "Somebody to Love", names some members of the band, returns the radio, and tells Danny to "be a good boy".
Larry's department head compliments him on Danny's bar mitzvah and hints that he will receive tenure. The mail brings a $3,000 bill from Arthur's lawyer. Larry decides to change Clive's grade from F to C−; immediately after he does so, his doctor calls, asking to see him immediately about the results of a chest X-ray. Meanwhile, Danny's teacher struggles to open the emergency shelter asa massive tornado closes in on the school.
Considerable attention was paid to the setting; it was important to the Coens to find a neighborhood of original-looking suburbanrambler homes as they would have appeared inSt. Louis Park, Minnesota, in the late 1960s. Locations were scouted in nearbyEdina,Richfield,Brooklyn Center, andHopkins[12] before a suitable location was found inBloomington.[13] The film's look is partly based on theBrad Zellar bookSuburban World: The Norling Photographs, a collection of photographs of Bloomington in the 1950s and 60s.[14]
Location filming began on September 8, 2008, in Minnesota. An office scene was shot atNormandale Community College in Bloomington. The film also used a set built in the school's library, as well as small sections of the second floor science building hallway. The synagogue is theB'nai Emet Synagogue in St. Louis Park. The Coens also shot some scenes inSt. Olaf College's old science building because of its similar period architecture.[15][16] A classroom scene was shot at the then-closed Shingle Creek Elementary School in north Minneapolis, due to its 1960s-era design.[17] Scenes were also shot at the Minneapolis legal offices of Meshbesher & Spence, the name of whose founder and president,Ronald I. Meshbesher, is mentioned as the criminal lawyer recommended to Larry in the film.[18] Filming wrapped on November 6, 2008, after 44 days, ahead of schedule and within budget.[19]
Longtime collaboratorRoger Deakins rejoined the Coens ascinematographer, following his absence fromBurn After Reading. This was his tenth film with them.[20] Costume designerMary Zophres returned for her ninth collaboration with the directors.[20]
The Coens themselves stated that the "germ" of the story was a rabbi from their adolescence: a "mysterious figure" who had a private conversation with each student at the conclusion of their religious education.[21] Ethan Coen said that it seemed appropriate to open the film with aYiddish folk tale, but as the brothers did not know any suitable ones, they wrote their own.[22]
Open auditions for the roles of Danny and Sarah were held on May 4, 2008, at the Sabes Jewish Community Center inSt. Louis Park, Minnesota, one of the scheduled shooting locations. Open auditions for the role of Sarah were also held in June 2008 inChicago, Illinois.[6][23]
Patton Oswalt andMarc Maron auditioned for the roles of Arthur Gopnik and Larry Gopnik.[24][25]
All of the film's original music is byCarter Burwell,[26] who also worked on every previousCoen brothers film exceptO Brother, Where Art Thou?[27] The film also contains pieces ofYiddish music including "Dem Milner's Trern" byMark Warshawsky and performed bySidor Belarsky, which deals with the abuse and recurring evictions of Jews fromShtetlekh.[28]
The soundtrack also includes the following songs by popular 1960s artists:
| No. | Title | Artist | Length |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | "Somebody to Love" | Jefferson Airplane | 2:58 |
| 2. | "Today" | Jefferson Airplane | 3:02 |
| 3. | "Comin' Back to Me" | Jefferson Airplane | 5:16 |
| 4. | "3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds" | Jefferson Airplane | 3:40 |
| 5. | "Machine Gun" | Jimi Hendrix | 12:36 |
The film began alimited release in the United States on October 2, 2009. It premiered at theToronto International Film Festival[29] on September 12, 2009.[30]
| Release date | Box office revenue | Box office ranking | Budget | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | United States | International | Worldwide | All time United States | All time worldwide | |
| October 2, 2009 | $9,228,768 | $22,201,566 | $31,430,334 | #3,818 | Unknown | $7,000,000[32] |
A Serious Man grossed $9,228,768 domestically, and $22,201,566 internationally, making for a worldwide gross of $31,430,334.[3]
A Serious Man received mostly positive reviews from critics, and holds an 89% approval rating onRotten Tomatoes, based on 227 reviews, with an average rating of 7.90/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Blending dark humor with profoundly personal themes, the Coen brothers deliver what might be their most mature—if not their best—film to date."[33] The film also holds a score of 85 out of 100 onMetacritic, based on 38 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".[34]
Roger Ebert of theChicago Sun-Times rated the film four out of four stars. His review highlighted the film's Yiddish folktale prologue, suggesting that though the Coens maintain it has no relation to the rest of the film, "maybe because an ancestor invited adybbuk (wandering soul) to cross his threshold, Larry is cursed."[35] In an essay inJung Journal: Culture and Psyche, Steve Zemmelman considers that the prologue may link to theJefferson Airplane soundtrack motif, reflecting Larry's normal sense of order becoming increasingly disrupted. He writes, "what can happen when 'the wheel falls off the cart', as Velvel says happened to him on the road that night, or 'when the truth is found to be lies', that lyric from 'Somebody to Love' that serves as bookends for this film."[36]
Claudia Puig ofUSA Today wrote, "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."[37]Time magazine criticRichard Corliss called it "disquieting" and "haunting".[38]
Some critics, including Roger Ebert, commented on the link between the film and the BiblicalBook of Job.[35] K. L. Evans wrote, "we identify it as a Job story because its central character is tormented by his failure to account for the miseries that befall him".[39] In his essay "Job of Suburbia?", David Tollerton wrote, "the more substantial connection betweenA Serious Man and the Book of Job—the connection that reaches deeper—is their similarly absurd presentations of the human struggle with anguish and the divine."[40]Slate magazine critic Juliet Lapidos considered that the folktale prologue may be an endorsement of the "gumption" of "taking matters into her own hands".[41]
The Wall Street Journal'sJoe Morgenstern disliked what he saw as the film'smisanthropy, saying that "their caricatures range from dislikable through despicable, with not a smidgeon of humanity to redeem them."[42]David Denby ofThe New Yorker enjoyed the film's look and feel, but found fault with the script and characterization: "A Serious Man, likeBurn 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."[43] Zemmelman wrote that this kind of viewer response results from the film's lack of narrative resolution: "The film is perplexing and the dialogue reminds the viewer repeatedly that we are in an encounter with the ever-conflictual and the infinitely mysterious."[44]
Todd McCarthy said, "A Serious Man is the kind of picture you get to make after you've won an Oscar."[45] Ebert quoted McCarthy in his review: "'This is the kind of picture you get to make after you've won an Oscar,' writes Todd McCarthy inVariety. I cannot improve on that."[35]
Awarding the film five stars inThe Guardian,Peter Bradshaw wrote, "this strange and wonderful film is rounded off with a gloriously well-crafted apocalyptic vision and a chilling intimation of divine retribution for earthly wrongdoing. The Coens have finished the noughties as America's preeminent filmmakers".[46]
A Serious Man was later voted the 82nd-greatest film since 2000 in aBBC international critics' poll.[47] In 2021, members ofWriters Guild of America West (WGAW) andWriters Guild of America, East (WGAE) ranked its screenplay 42nd in WGA's 101 Greatest Screenplays of the 21st Century (So Far).[48][49] In 2025, the film ranked 36th onThe New York Times's list of "The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century".[50]
A Serious Man received numerous awards and nominations,[51] particularly for its screenplay, acting, and cinematography. Joel and Ethan Coen were awarded Best Original Screenplay at the2009 National Board of Review Awards[52] and the2010 National Society of Film Critics Awards.[53] The screenplay was also nominated forBest Original Screenplay at the2010 Academy Awards,[54] and received nominations from theWriters Guild of America Awards,[55] theBAFTA Awards,[56] the15th Annual Critics' Choice Awards,[57] and the2009 Boston Society of Film Critics Awards.[58]
The film was nominated forBest Picture at the82nd Academy Awards;[54] theBBC News called it "one of the less talked about nominees".[59] It was also nominated for Best Picture by the Critics' Choice Awards,[57] the Boston Society of Film Critics,[58] and theChicago Film Critics Association.[60] The National Board of Review,[52] theAmerican Film Institute,[61] theSatellite Awards,[62] and the Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards[63] all listed the film as one of the ten best of 2009.
Stuhlbarg was awarded the Chaplin Virtuoso Award at theSanta Barbara International Film Festival[64] and was nominated forBest Actor at the2010 Golden Globe Awards.[65] Stuhlbarg, Kind, Melamed and Lennick were nominated for aGotham Award for Best Performance by an Ensemble Cast.[66] At the2010 Independent Spirit Awards,Roger Deakins won the award forBest Cinematography, and the film's directors, ensemble cast, and casting directors were awarded with theRobert Altman Award.[67]
Deakins also received awards at both the 2009 Hollywood Awards and the2009 San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards,[68] along with theNikola Tesla Award[69] at the Satellite Awards.[62]
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