A Serious Man

Name: A Serious Man
Genre: Drama
Released: October 2, 2009
Duration: 106 min
Rating: 88
Cast: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Sari Lennick

2009

METASCORE

Universal acclaim based on 38 Critic Reviews

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USER SCORE

Generally favorable reviews based on 333 Ratings

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6.8

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6.8	Your Score
6.8	User Score Generally favorable reviews based on 333 Ratings

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A Serious Man

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Movie Details & Credits

Focus Features | Release Date: October 2, 2009 | R

Starring: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Sari Lennick

Summary: A Serious Man is the story of an ordinary man’s search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and F-Troop is on TV. It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his moreA Serious Man is the story of an ordinary man’s search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and F-Troop is on TV. It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous acquaintances, Sy Ableman, who seems to her a more substantial person than the feckless Larry. Larry’s unemployable brother Arthur is sleeping on the couch, his son Danny is a discipline problem and a shirker at Hebrew school, and his daughter Sarah is filching money from his wallet in order to save up for a nose job. Struggling for equilibrium, Larry seeks advice from three different rabbis. Can anyone help him cope with his afflictions and become a righteous person – a mensch – a serious man? (Focus Features)… Expand

Director: Ethan Coen and Joel Coen

Genre(s): Drama

Rating: R

Runtime: 106 min

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Metascore

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Critic Reviews

100

Mick LaSalle

The movie is funny, definitely funny. But underlying the humor is a vision so bleak, so despairing and so utterly hopeless as to make "No Country for Old Men" almost look cheerful. Read full review

100

Lou Lumenick

May not have the starry casts of the Coens' more recent films, but it has plenty of heart and soul. Read full review

100

Andrew O'Hehir

I found this beautifully crafted movie to be frequently hilarious, consistently surprising and rigged with spring-loaded narrative bombs, from its opening scene to its devastating final shot. Read full review

Noel Murray

WQholly a Coen brothers movie, in that it’s full of exaggerated characters and comic cruelty, anchored to a way of looking at the world that seems to posit a fundamental absence of meaning. And yet there’s something sweet and even a little heartening about the movie, too. Read full review

James Berardinelli

The presence of so many low-key performers gives A Serious Man a very different, distinctly non-Hollywood vibe. The absence of familiar faces allows the Coens to fully immerse their audience in the time (1967) and place (the U.S. Midwest) of the story. Read full review

Ann Hornaday

May not be "Fargo," but it nestles comfortably somewhere beneath that masterpiece and "Miller's Crossing," yet far above such forgettables as "The Ladykillers" and "Intolerable Cruelty." Read full review

Ella Taylor

As usual, though, the Coens have more venal satisfactions in mind. "The fun of the story for us," they crow in the notes for this loathsome movie, "was inventing new ways to torture Larry." Read full review

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User Reviews

Oct 28, 2009

I liked this better than all of the other Coen brothers' films. Dark, brilliant. (And I'm a goy).

0 of 0 users found this helpful

BiffL

Nov 11, 2009

A wonderful film about a man beset, then overwhelmed by modern life's vicissitudes, uncertainties, moral quandaries. An existentiallist tour-de-force and at the same time a burlesque revue of American Jewish life, belief and practice in the mid-20th century Midwest. Pure genius!

1 of 1 users found this helpful

ArthurF

Mar 29, 2010

A movie with humor and pathos, funny lines and ultimately no conclusion. That's life. There are no definitive answers. The film has a bleak side, which predominates - there are no answers - and a hilarious side, with some good laughs.

3 of 4 users found this helpful

Oct 12, 2009

Very entertaining for people familiar with jewish culture. Non-jews will not get much of the humor. Probably not for middle america

0 of 0 users found this helpful

JamesL

Oct 27, 2009

I think the Coen brothers have gotten lazy. They were on to something with this film but decided to take the easy way out and leave the topic barely scratched. If they had dug a little deeper, taken a few more risks and been willing to possibly offend some religious people, then this film I think the Coen brothers have gotten lazy. They were on to something with this film but decided to take the easy way out and leave the topic barely scratched. If they had dug a little deeper, taken a few more risks and been willing to possibly offend some religious people, then this film could have soared. Insted it barely caused a ripple on the big pond of life and cinema.… Expand

0 of 1 users found this helpful

Efreet69

Mar 7, 2011

I was greatly disappointed by this film and cannot see how it was a nominee for the Best Picture Oscar. I found it neither thought provoking nor especially funny. Perhaps I would have gained more from the viewing if I was raised in the Jewish-American tradition, where I might have relatedI was greatly disappointed by this film and cannot see how it was a nominee for the Best Picture Oscar. I found it neither thought provoking nor especially funny. Perhaps I would have gained more from the viewing if I was raised in the Jewish-American tradition, where I might have related more to some of the "commonly shared cultural experience" points of view. >>>> My full cinema profile here: http://bit.ly/MyMovies… Expand

0 of 3 users found this helpful03

ReidF

Oct 10, 2009

Snide, obnoxious, vapid people doing awful things to each other, this movie is total garbage.

0 of 1 users found this helpful

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8	#8 Best Movie of 2009
35	#35 Most Discussed Movie of 2009
68	#68 Most Shared Movie of 2009