A Serious Man

[Beate]

I guess you need to have some more religious knowledge than I do to understand the film. I guess you need to know about Judaism a bit more, or you need to be into strange, meaningful films. We are neither. Which is why, when, an hour or so in, a couple behind us got up and left, I said to the OH "I feel like wanting to do the same!" and he said "Great!" We were numbers 5 and 6 to leave, strangely all from our corner at the back. It did not help that the screening room was in the basement, with little opportunity to see the screen at all if you had someone in front of you (and the OH had a really tall one with a hat in front of him). I wanted to get into the film, I really did, which is why we stuck it out so long, but in the end we just had enough. I have no idea what that black and white scene at the beginning meant but it was more interesting than the rest of the film! I didn't find it very funny either. I guess I don't understand Jewish humour.

3/10

[a_person]

I am sooooooo glad I didn't go! Definitely another "Burn After Reading" crappy style film! I'm not sure what people enjoy about these... I've the Big Lebowski was good but even the trailer really turned me off hence I didn't bother with it...And I don't regret it either!

[EthanRunt]

I loved Burn After Reading (I say loved, I still do) and figured this'll be another pacey little comedy by the Coens as they work on some drama, similar to Barton Fink, and the reviews were rather amazing, expected, I know, for the Coens, but I was super excited.

About an hour in I suddenly had a gut feeling realising that it wasn't going anywhere and certainly wasn't going to get any better, but I never walk out of a film, well, the new Harry Potter, but I don't even know why I bothered with that, but I digress, I sit through anything, and as it's The Coen Brothers, I knew I'd have to await the ending, which wasn't as sudden as I thought, figuring it'd be halfway through the Bar Mitzvah, instead it did build up and yet, like in other Coen films, the film was explained in the middle, the second Rabbi's visit and the dentist story, all build up and no p*y off, leaving many questions, and I get this.

The problem is I never really cared about the main character, his situation, which like at the end suddenly became a storm without any warning, and it all just felt like a series of mundane events led by some good actors in a script which switched between quirky & dull and very funny.

I wish it was better, I wanted it to be amazing, 3 in a row wasn't too much to ask for back in the day, and whilst I doubt they'll slip back into Cruelty, Ladykillers territory, I fear that this substandard and ill judged movie style that makes them try to break a lot of rules in a clever way is being used too much, and will be their next downfall.

On another note, the film looked good, certainly what I'd imagine Burn would look like had Roger Deakins been able to work on that as well.
6/10

[jaisonix]

While the acting was good and the film making itself did not bear faults, i failed to relate to the plot and its over the top use of Jewish content. While i would normally have nothing against any religious content, I think that even the Jews themselves don't want to see meaningless interpretations of their traditions randomly appearing throughout this movie. I literally left the cinema with a headache and so has my companion.

On the other hand I enjoyed few moments of it, but it still failed to develop any sort of logic. I can only hope that the good reviews come from people who felt intimidated to say that they understood the movie and its purpose, while in fact no such statement can be made.

I do enjoy from time to time to see a film which diversifies from traditional film creation, but this unbalanced piece of cinema was created for barely even a valid purpose.

Even though i spent no money on the ticket, i want my time back. Now i understand why much of the films ideas were omitted from its trailers and ads on which i based my desire to see this movie, so i will be more careful next time and read more detailed descriptions.

Whoever is not a fanatic of shaky plots, pointless irrelative begginings, even more fruitless endings without any enterntaining general content filled with unrelated Judaism ideas, i would strongly recommend to avoid the disapointment and not go to this film, even if its the last film on earth. Doing nothing whatsoever, e.g. just standing in the middle of an empty room for the duration of the movie is far more amusing.

1/5

[mattgad]

I did not understand what the first 5 minutes had to do with the rest of the film, but followed by the Jewish teaching scene, I did actually wonder if this film was in English or not. A little boring, and a little unexplained in places. Found a few parts funny, but not much.

11 people walked out in Sheffield (Yes, I counted.)

I would give it a 5/10.

[EthanRunt]

Don't blame the counting, probably more fun than some of the film...
I've looked around, and no one really has written about the point of the opening, some have said "People will write about the point of it" but that's a lazy way of saying "Why the hell is it in there? Probably very smart, I'll pretend like I kinda know why"

[dovetail]

SPOILER!!!

I thought the story was basically the Book of Job set in a sixties mid-Western town. Like Job, Laurence tries to understand why all these terrible things are happening to him but never loses his faith in God. [spoiler]But unlike Job, Larry does give into temptation and apparently as a consequence, is sent even more punishment.

As this lapse by Laurence comes after his life seems to be taking a turn for the better - the ending is pretty bleak.[/spoiler]
3 out of 5.

Not the best from the Coen brothers but a darn sight better than most of their other films.

Did anyone think that Judith, Larry's wife, was the spitting image of Kirstie (Location, Location, Location) Allsop?

http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1538100736/nm3102689

http://www.guardian.co.uk/money/blog/20 ... elocation1

[ejwrank]

Well we stayed until the end but were very disappointed with the film. We had high expectations and the film fell flat. We have absolutely no idea about the first bit in Yiddish and what relevance it had to the rest of the film. There were a few laughs (too few) and the film certainly can be categorised as quirky but I didn't care enough about anyone in the film and it was long and often dull.

Afterwards we walked to Trafalgar Square to see the just arrived rainforest tree stumps which are pretty dramatic in the night light. Now these trees are worth seeing. That was the high point of the evening!

[Ms Thrifty]

I am really surprised by all these mediocre (or worse) reviews and all the more glad that I saw the film the day before, or I might have been influenced by them and not bothered going. I am sorry that so many other people found it pointless/boring/a waste of their time, and I have felt the same myself about enough other films. But I stand by what I said: I loved this film (and I liked Burn After Reading, too, though the tone seemed to change throughout). I think it's the Coen Brothers having a big laugh and that the beginning not only fits in but sets the tone, as has been suggested. I enjoyed the way so many injustices seemed to pile on the main character, so that, just when you thought it couldn't get any worse, another disaster hit him. Then, little by little, his situation turned round, but not in any way you could predict, and the ending seemed to me to be saying "but don't think you're out of the woods yet - something even worse may literally be just on the horizon!" For me this is even one of the Coen Brothers' best and also reminiscent of Fargo, but without the gruesome stuff. I wasn't so keen on The Big Lebowski but am beginning to wonder if I should see that again and re-evaluate it.

[valda]

I was in the dungeon at Haymarket and wished I'd walked out too. Probably if I'd been on my own I would have. I don't normally walk out of films but in this instance, faced with a film I didn't understand and couldn't see because of the boy sitting in front of me blocking out the whole screen with his hyperactive head, there was no point in staying. HOwever I did. I used to love the Coens all the way back to Blood Simple and RAising ARizona, recently I've found I can't get into thier films like I used to. Either unfunny, Ladykillers, Intolerable Cruelty, or to me, self indulgent meandering films. In this film, I just could not get it. I could see it was well filmed, looked good, performances were good, but I didn't understand what it was all about. Why did it start like that? Why did it end like that?

My evening was only saved by going to see Reginald D Hunter afterwards