Understanding of a movie helps, but understanding everything in it is hardly essential, as my bout with this film says to me. I mean, of physics, I know not a whit; of Jewishness, not a whole lot more. But of humor, I like to partake, and this one had me guffawing in parts, thanks mainly to the simply written dialog written for the lead character, whose life is such a mess. Sure, there are obscurities here (among them what the hell Richard Kind and his character are supposed to ad), but the fact is that before one pities the lead character, who certainly is pitiful in so many ways, one has to laugh heartily at his circumstances. The tone of the movie is what gets to me the most. It is as though one is back in high school and getting a dodge-around-it answer to question rather important to a teen but zinging over a teacher's head. Michael Stuhlberg is brilliant as the lead character to whom tenure would be heaven in his physics-laden existence (think Eugene Levy's second coming). I don't believe in giving directors/writers carte blanch approval because of illustrious histories, but it would be difficult to argue much with the originality the Cohens often bring to the playhouse. I don't "get" everything they do, but almost all of it has a lasting effect on me.
Review of A Serious Man
