REVIEW: A Serious Man

I came into this movie approximately two minutes late and while I had no freaking idea what was going on -- unlike the rest of the movie, the first scene is set in the distant past somewhere in Eastern Europe -- I was immediately struck with one unmistakable fact: this is definitely a Coen Brothers movie. A Serious Man is a what-happens-when-the-world-shits-all-over-you kind of story with absolutely no plot, no drive, no sense, and no ending. Perhaps this movie is meant to be a reflection on the Coen brothers' experiences as Jewish pot-smoking boys in suburbia, but aside from any such esoteric explanation, there is simply no meaning to be got from this film. It's almost as if the Coen brothers ran out of money half-way through and, left with nothing more than a series of unrelated scenes, tacked on a contrived ending and called it a day, hoping their names would carry them at the box office. For those expecting something like No Country for Old Man, it is a a disappointment. For those expecting something like Fargo, it is a disaster. That said, there are quite a number of scenes to find enjoyable, but this is a movie, not a cabaret.

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