written by Frosteee on 31/12/2009
I went to see A Serious Man after hearing and reading some great reviews by various film critics. I'm a Coen Brothers fan and I enjoy offbeat, slightly arthouse movies so A Serious Man seemed perfect for me.
The movie is set in 1970s suburban America and centres on the life of the 'Serious Man', a Jewish family man who always tries to do the right thing by his family, his religion and his job as a College Professor. However despite his best intentions and determination to 'do the right think' his life starts to fall apart around him in a number of humiliating and comical ways.
The film is extremely well shot with great direction and mainly strong performances from the relatively unknown cast. The story is best described as a black comedy with some very funny moments and a dark edge.
I throughly enjoyed the film right up until the anti-climactic ending. The film doesn't really have a conventional ending - it just stops. The story seems to be building up to some kind of resolution for the central character the movie ends in a rather disappointing way. Perhaps I should have expected this from a Coen Brothers movie.
Everyone in the cinema was shocked when the credits came up with the confused glances between couples continuing as we spilled out onto the streets. Given this was a Curzon full of arty Soho-types my disappointment couldn't be entirely down to personal ignorance.
If the ending had been matched up to the build up I would have given this film 4 stars but I felt pretty cheated afterwards and it only just scrapes a 3. One for blindly fanatic Coen brothers followers only.