10 Best Movies Where The Protagonist Learns Nothing

1. A Serious Man

The Coen brothers strike again with their incredible 2009 meditation on the trying nature of religion in a world governed by random cruelty.

A Serious Man begins with Jewish physics professor Larry Gopnik (an excellent Michael Stuhlbarg) beginning to question his faith after his wife decides to leave him, he's denied tenure at his job and he's effectively blackmailed into giving one of his students a passing grade.

Larry spends much of the movie wrestling with his faith to God and asking various religious figures about the meaning of it all, though none of these men provide anything beyond ambiguous, unsatisfactory answers.

The film ends without ever giving Larry the solutions or personal peace he desperately searches for. He agrees to give the student a pass, and almost immediately afterwards learns of a grim medical diagnosis, while a gigantic tornado looms over his son's school.

Inspired as it is by the Book of Job, Larry is left clueless about the apparent "meaning" of acts which may or may not be set in motion by God. Likely a summation of the Coens' own feelings on religion, Larry's lack of closure is a most perfect commentary on the trying requirements of faith and how it bristles with our physical reality.

Which other great movies prove that cinema doesn't require character arcs? Shout them out in the comments!