A Serious Man
2/11/10
Given that I can barely sit through one feature length film in the comforts of my own home, it’s a rather remarkable accomplishment that I was able to keep engaged for 4 and a half hours in a hot, crowded theater full of people who chew with their mouth open. But the Coen Brothers, who started off this double feature at the Castro, delivered with A Serious Man, combining the tried and true elements of their most successful films with new experiments in storytelling for one of their most memorable movies this side of the millennium.
The Coens rarely tell a “new” story (I myself am on the fence as to whether there are any new stories in the first place), but they consistently prove that certain methods of storytelling, when used well, will give rise to an engrossing tale time and time again. Rock solid characters, strong writing, an impressive cast and purposeful direction—when expertly combined—will deliver a stunning final product, even if the story is (quite literally) as old as the Bible. The formula seems so simple, but rarely is it so well realized as in A Serious Man.
It’s worth noting how great the trailer is for this movie, and how perfectly it fits with the tone of the film. It not only serves as a preview, but also complements the movie as a whole. What you know going into a movie effects the experience as much as what you eventually see on screen, and had the trailer been traditionally cut, I don’t know that I would have enjoyed the feature as much. In the spirit of the movie I’ll be ending this write up n
