Negli anni 60 Larry Gopnik, un professore di fisica, è coinvolto in una serie di vicende tragicomiche che lo vedono al centro di situazioni sempre più disperate.Negli anni 60 Larry Gopnik, un professore di fisica, è coinvolto in una serie di vicende tragicomiche che lo vedono al centro di situazioni sempre più disperate.Negli anni 60 Larry Gopnik, un professore di fisica, è coinvolto in una serie di vicende tragicomiche che lo vedono al centro di situazioni sempre più disperate.
- Regia
- Sceneggiatura
- Star
- Candidato a 2 Oscar
- 17 vittorie e 80 candidature totali
Recensioni in evidenza
Seriously boring
"A Serious Man" may be artistic but it is too plain. Watching a professor with so many problems both at work and in his marriage is not that interesting. The story is not engaging, and the way it is presented is not engaging either. There is no tension, no emotions or suspense. characters keep shouting "I haven't done anything" often, and I thought that's exactly right. As the characters haven't done anything, there is nothing in the plot that makes me want to watch it. At least they could have had done something to make me a little more interested. In addition, they really should have explained the Jewish traditions briefly as I was left confused about all sorts of Jewish terms. "A Serious Man" is seriously boring.
Seriously Good.
It's a humble project for the Coens, but don't ever underestimate what they can do. A Serious Man is a serious picture that makes you laugh and squirm at the misfortune of Larry Gopnik. An average mid-western Jewish man searching for reason in a time where there is none. Tested is he to make peace with HaShem when all around him is moral decay and temptation. The Coens strength is in their characters, which in this film are as rich as they've ever been. I was fascinated by Arthur Gopnik, a borderline autistic man who discovers a map of the universe while tending to his sebaceous cyst. Perhaps my favorite character was Sy Ableman, a self proclaimed "serious man" from the community who Larry's wife is cheating on him with. His purposely affected anglo-saxon accent nearly killed me. It's the littlest eccentricities of people that the Coens always explore and exploit and it's eternally delightful.
Quantum Physics Aside
Self-indulgent nonsense
"A Serious Man" is the the latest comedy by the Coens brothers's and it turned out to be one of the worst films I had the displeasure to watch this year. The film is essentially a dark comedy, which seems to be the Coens favorite genre, but with emphasis on the dark. Burn After Reading, the Coens previous film, was also very dark but at the same time, extremely funny. A Serious Man doesn't deliver any laughs whatsoever, and seems to be filled with inside/personal jokes. In Brudges is another good example of a well done black comedy, even thought tragedy ensues, we can't help but laugh. By now, I hope it's clear that I enjoy dark humor as much as the next guy but there's just no humor at all in A Serious Man. I could have still enjoyed the film, had the story been well written but it wasn't. It's a conglomerate of silly situations and awkward moments glued together with no resemblance to an actual story. A modern retelling of the Book of Job? Perhaps. A well written story? Absolutely not.
The film didn't deliver on any level and ended up being painfully dull. The reviews for this film have been so positive, and it was so well received by the critics that those who hated the film will be, I'm sure, immediately accused of "not getting it". Maybe you do have to be fully aware of the Jewish culture, or a big fan of the Coens brothers to actually enjoy the film but, as I stand, A Serious Man is a terrible film, that apart from the great set and wardrobe, has no redeeming qualities.
2/10
Moving, funny, complex, surprising, and often (often) brilliant
Such a vivid recreation of late 1960s suburban America is a remarkable enough basis for a movie, making the real meat of the thing almost transcendent. A joy! I recognized everything here from my own childhood--everything except everything Jewish.
And that's the point, taken well. And made well, brilliant from start to finish. Very Coen Brothers--moving, sometimes disturbing, and sometimes very hilarious.
For insiders--American Jews--the references and send-ups will be moving and funny and familiar. For outsiders--goys--A Serious Man is an indoctrination, a can opener to an ethnic world with deep roots (Eastern European in this case), great integrity, and many internal (modern) conflicts.
The surrealism sprinkled throughout is just smart movie-making, keeping it from becoming a deep, ironic, and serious movie. It's a comedy with deeply serious undertones, not the other way around. Some of the acting is amazing, Michael Stuhlbarg playing the line between tragedy and farce in every scene, and the filming is expert without ever drawing attention to itself. The ending will leave many people talking and it isn't appropriate to do that here, except to say that in some ways it leaves you thinking so hard you may read more into the events than is really there.
Or not. Certainly the first scene, if it is some metaphor for all the follows, is both trenchant and disturbing, more Babel than Singer, but perhaps (perhaps) frightening in its misogyny. In fact, the whole movie has men who are wise, who laugh at their fate, who do good things, and women who, one way or another, stick the knife in you.
And who (or what) is the dybbuk here? Is this about the survival of some kind of Judaic history in contemporary America? Or is it larger, about the meaning of Judaism period, on a worldly level? Or larger still, is it simply a movie, like Do the Right Thing or My Big Fat Greek Wedding or any of thousands of others, about life, and love, and the struggling of one person against the woes of the world as he or she faces them, in their own context?
Or is it a comedy, a really funny comedy, making fun, having fun, and rising above the tawdry enough to remind everyone, Jewish or not, of the need we all have for community and connection and continuity.
Lo sapevi?
- QuizThe names of the characters who ride the school bus with Danny Gopnik are the names of children that the Coen brothers grew up with.
- BlooperIn the final scenes where Larry changes Clive's failing grade, you can clearly see the erasure marks of the new grade before he erases the old one. This could denote the film makers needing several takes to get the right shot. Yet, it could also have been chosen to be included on purpose to show that Larry struggled many times with the morality of passing Clive, going so far as to update his grade, but had changed his mind.
- Citazioni
Rabbi Nachtner: You know Lee Sussman.
Larry Gopnik: Doctor Sussman? I think I - yeah.
Rabbi Nachtner: Did he ever tell you about the goy's teeth?
Larry Gopnik: No... I- What goy?
Rabbi Nachtner: So... Lee is at work one day; you know he has the orthodontic practice there at Great Bear. He's making a plaster mold - it's for corrective bridge work - in the mouth of one of his patients, Russell Kraus. The mold dries and Lee is examining it one day before fabricating an appliance. He notices something unusual. There appears to be something engraved on the inside of the patient's lower incisors. He vav shin yud ayin nun yud. "Hwshy 'ny". "Help me, save me". This in a goy's mouth, Larry. He calls the goy back on the pretense of needing additional measurements for the appliance. "How are you? Noticed any other problems with your teeth?" No. There it is. "Hwshy 'ny". "Help me". Son of a gun. Sussman goes home. Can Sussman eat? Sussman can't eat. Can Sussman sleep? Sussman can't sleep. Sussman looks at the molds of his other patients, goy and Jew alike, seeking other messages. He finds none. He looks in his own mouth. Nothing. He looks in his wife's mouth. Nothing. But Sussman is an educated man. Not the world's greatest sage, maybe, no Rabbi Marshak, but he knows a thing or two from the Zohar and the Caballah. He knows that every Hebrew letter has its numeric equivalent. 8-4-5-4-4-7-3. Seven digits... a phone number, maybe? "Hello? Do you know a goy named Kraus, Russell Kraus?" Who? "Where have I called? The Red Owl in Bloomington. Thanks so much." He goes. It's a Red Owl. Groceries; what have you. Sussman goes home. What does it mean? He has to find out if he is ever to sleep again. He goes to see... the Rabbi Nachtner. He comes in, he sits right where you're sitting right now. "What does it mean, Rabbi? Is it a sign from Hashem, 'Help me'? I, Sussman, should be doing something to help this goy? Doing what? The teeth don't say. Or maybe I'm supposed to help people generally, lead a more righteous life? Is the answer in Caballah? In Torah? Or is there even a question? Tell me, Rabbi, what can such a sign mean?"
[pause as the Rabbi drinks his tea]
Larry Gopnik: So what did you tell him?
Rabbi Nachtner: Sussman?
Larry Gopnik: Yes!
Rabbi Nachtner: Is it... relevant?
Larry Gopnik: Well, isn't that why you're telling me?
Rabbi Nachtner: Okay. Nachtner says, look. The teeth, we don't know. A sign from Hashem? Don't know. Helping others... couldn't hurt.
Larry Gopnik: No! No, but... who put it there? Was it for him, Sussman, or for whoever found it, or for just, for, for...
Rabbi Nachtner: We can't know everything.
Larry Gopnik: It sounds like you don't know anything! Why even tell me the story?
Rabbi Nachtner: [chuckling] First I should tell you, then I shouldn't.
Larry Gopnik: What happened to Sussman?
Rabbi Nachtner: What would happen? Not much. He went back to work. For a while he checked every patient's teeth for new messages. He didn't find any. In time, he found he'd stopped checking. He returned to life. These questions that are bothering you, Larry - maybe they're like a toothache. We feel them for a while, then they go away.
Larry Gopnik: I don't want it to just go away! I want an answer!
Rabbi Nachtner: Sure! We all want the answer! But Hashem doesn't owe us the answer, Larry. Hashem doesn't owe us anything. The obligation runs the other way.
Larry Gopnik: Why does he make us feel the questions if he's not gonna give us any answers?
Rabbi Nachtner: He hasn't told me.
[Larry puts his face in his hands in despair]
Larry Gopnik: And... what happened to the goy?
Rabbi Nachtner: The goy? Who cares?
- Curiosità sui creditiAt the end of the credits is a line advising that "No Jews were harmed in the making of this motion picture."
- ConnessioniFeatured in The Rotten Tomatoes Show: Surrogates/Pandorum/Fame (2009)
- Colonne sonoreSomebody to Love
Written by Darby Slick
Performed by Jefferson Airplane
Courtesy of The RCA Records Label
By arrangement with Sony BMG Music Entertainment
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Dettagli
- Data di uscita
- Paesi di origine
- Sito ufficiale
- Lingue
- Celebre anche come
- Un hombre serio
- Luoghi delle riprese
- Repubblica Ceca(scenes before opening credits)
- Aziende produttrici
- Vedi altri crediti dell’azienda su IMDbPro
Botteghino
- Budget
- 7.000.000 USD (previsto)
- Lordo Stati Uniti e Canada
- 9.228.768 USD
- Fine settimana di apertura Stati Uniti e Canada
- 251.337 USD
- 4 ott 2009
- Lordo in tutto il mondo
- 31.431.652 USD
- Tempo di esecuzione
- 1h 46min(106 min)
- Colore
- Mix di suoni
- Proporzioni
- 1.85 : 1