| A Serious Man [Blu-ray] | ![A Serious Man [Blu-ray]](http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51h8zdHqZ6L._SL160_.jpg) | Actors: Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed, Aaron Wolff
Studio: Universal Studios
Category: DVD
List Price: $36.98
Buy Used: $13.84
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Rating:  128 reviews
Sales Rank: 12,504
Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, DTS Surround Sound, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
Languages: English (Subtitled), French (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language), French (Dubbed), Spanish (Dubbed)
Rating: R (Restricted)
Media: Blu-ray
Discs: 1
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Running Time: 106 Minutes
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.3
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 5.3 x 0.4
MPN: 025195054393
UPC: 025195054393
EAN: 0025195054393
ASIN: B002E2M5IC
Theatrical Release Date: 2009
Release Date: February 9, 2010
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
One man's struggles through life in 1967.
Amazon.com
Joel and Ethan Coen make movies like nobody else's, but even by their standards A Serious Man is in a class by itself: a complete original that's one of the brothers' best. After a deeply weird Yiddish folk-tale prologue set in 19th-century Poland (and framed in the old 1.33:1 format), the picture shifts to the region and era of the Coens' own upbringing, a Minneapolis suburb in 1967. Larry Gopnik (a superbly concentrated portrait in comic anguish by Michael Stuhlbarg) is a college physics prof facing a welter of crises and distractions: review by the tenure committee, son Danny's bar mitzvah, a cryptic-verging-on-sinister protest from a Korean-American student, the alienation of wife Judith's affections by widower Sy Ableman, the ongoing encroachment of brother Arthur and his sebaceous cyst--and don't even mention the proto-Nazi who lives next door. All these, and more, form a screenplay of such intricacy that the blackly comic tensions of one shaggy-dog narrative strand leap synapse-like to another; the movie becomes a symphony of metaphysical dread. Working again with world-class cameraman Roger Deakins and editing, as always, under the pseudonym Roderick Jaynes, the Coens maintain impeccable control over the movie's look and timing. This is more crucial than ever, given that in the precarious universe they define, "actions have consequences." Then again, so does nonaction; not ordering "the monthly main selection" from the Columbia Record Club means you've ordered it. The main-title credits almost flaunt the fact that most of the cast members will be unfamiliar to us (though they all deliver); best known are Richard Kind as Arthur, Adam Arkin as Larry's divorce lawyer, and Michael Lerner (the studio boss in Barton Fink) doing a hilarious, wordless cameo as Solomon Schlutz. Special praise is due Fred Melamed, seizing the role of a lifetime as the unctuous Sy Ableman; Amy Landecker as Mrs. Samsky, the multifariously zoned-out siren who's Larry's other next-door neighbor; and Ari Hoptman as Arlen, Larry's mealy-mouthed academic colleague who can't resist hinting at the latest rumblings from the tenure committee, even if he can't really say anything. --Richard T. Jameson
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Showing reviews 1-5 of 128
 A Good Man July 23, 2010
Stephen M. Prescott (Minneapolis, Minnesota United States)
There are two ways to be a serious man in the manner in which the term is understood in this movie. One way is to be recognized by society as the kind of man who can reward his friends and punish his enemies, a man of consequence, a man to be taken seriously. The other way is to be in full possession of your soul. The eponymous hero of this movie, Larry Gopnik (a physics professor played with great skill by Michael Stuhlbarg) is of the second type. To the eyes of the world, he is a timid man of little consequence. But God, who sees all things, knows otherwise and sends him sorrows so that his soul might bear fruit.
His wife leaves him for another man who, while pretending to be his friend, is secretly conspiring to get Larry denied tenure at his college. One of his students tries to bribe him into giving him a passing grade and when Larry refuses, threatens a lawsuit. His troglodyte neighbor bullies him. His teenage children, being teenage children, can see his predicament and yet are too wrapped up in their own petty concerns to give him the affection and companionship he needs. In desperation, Larry seeks out, in succession, the advise of three Rabbais who, like the friends of Job in the Bible, offer nothing. Larry is overwhelmed with no one left to turn to.
What does Larry do? Instead of striking back, he simply absorbs the insults and cruelty. When his wife and her lover suggest he move out of his own house to a seedy motel, he quietly complies. He carries on with each situation by ascertaining the most civil, the most considerate response until, at the end of the film, things turn around and each burden resolves to a tolerably good conclusion, seemingly by itself. Mysteriously, God laid these burdens on Larry and, just as mysteriously, He lifted them. It was all for a purpose. The burdens could have been born with such grace only by a serious man. The trial is over.
THE COHEN BROTHERS DO IT AGAIN (!) July 21, 2010
Rick Lloyd (Honolulu, Hawaii)
I have always loved Cohen Bros movies. And, this one is no exception. This one has a comedy that's so understated that I was in hysterics from beginning to end.
Haym Salomon Airplane June 27, 2010
JamesNYC (New York, NY USA)
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
What makes this wry comedy special isn't the humour. Although you'll have a smile on your face much of the time (certainly not at the ending), there were only a couple of laugh out loud moments. Rather, it's the thought-provoking and stimulating storyline about a Jewish college professor, Larry Gopnik, whose life seems to be unraveling, and who seeks spiritual guidance in vain.
His wife is leaving him for another man. His psychologically impaired brother has moved in, stirring up even more domestic turmoil. He is up for tenure but someone has been sending anonymous letters of complaint about him to university officials. He has to deal with a difficult Korean student, and the student's father, who offer to bribe him in exchange for a passing grade. And he has money problems.
Gopnik comes across as something of a pathetic sap who could solve some of his problems by just standing up for himself, but his ultimate fate is apparently beyond his control. The ending could have been written by Schopenhauer. Even though I don't agree with, or like, the movie's message, I still respect and admire the way it has been put on film.
Aside from the fact that it probably helps to be Jewish (I'm not) when digesting the film, the only problem I have with it is that I kept waiting in vain to find out the significance of the film's beginning: a supernatural(?) scene in what appears to be 19h century Poland. I don't know if I missed it, but I was unable to see any connection between this opening and the rest of the movie.
With all the garbage that is churned out by Hollywood nowadays, A SERIOUS MAN is a real gem of a flick, albeit an ultimately depressing one.
 Good film marred disc June 24, 2010
Michael S. Hart (Sacramento CA USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I'd already seen the film in the theater. I liked the extra features. Unfortunately the disc arrived with a scratch .Except for that problem I'm pleased. As the film says at the beginning__ 'Accept everything that happens to you with simplicity.' Rashi
Jewish Humor Without the Humor June 16, 2010
Zarathustra (Sacramento, CA USA)
The title gives It away. This is a very serious movie. Was it supposed to be funny? Raising Arizona and The Big Lebowski were funny. I tried to laugh with this one, but found nothing to even smile at.
If you want Jewish humor, watch a Woody Allen movie, many of which are laugh out loud funny. Sleeper, Love and Death and Annie Hall are hilarious. This one, not so much. Go figure.
Showing reviews 1-5 of 128
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