Hitherto I have always placed Spielberg up there at the top of my favourite contemporary film makers list but recently he seems to have moved away from the cameras into the executive suites and what is called 'a Spielberg film' these days is, I suspect, in name only. But not to worry because there is always the Coen brothers to fall back on and today I finally watched one which I have consistently missed since its release in 2009. The film, A Serious Man, is not, I think, one of their best because it seems to me to be a very personal, even private, film. It is just about as kosher as you can get, being entirely taken up with the family life of an orthodox American Jew. From this film I would gather that the Coen boys are not too happy about their religion, or at least, the orthodox representatives of it. In fact, if they weren't so damned Jewish themselves you might think they were anti-Semitic because nobody comes out of their bleak vision looking good! Whilst there is a direct story line it is told in an episodic manner but whilst the episodes are often amusing, the smile tends to freeze on your face. And yet . . . and yet . . . I have a feeling that the doom-laden, ineffable schmuck, Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg - superb), will remain in my memory for a long time. A curiosity in that I guarantee you will never see another film quite like this one but still worth watching as the Coen brothers do what they love to do - take risks.
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