You never actually see God in A Serious Man, but you sense his hand in the feature-length trial and punishment of Michael Stuhlbarg's totally innocent Larry Gopnik. With his life seemingly based on that of the story of Job, Gopnik asks a series of rabbis why HaShem has forsaken him, as his professional and private lives fall into tatters. First, his wife leaves him for a colleague. Then he's forced out of his own house, made to live in a motel called The Jolly Roger with his oddball brother, Arthur (Richard Kind), while dealing with monetary woes and a student that's trying to blackmail him. Through it all, Larry remains dignified, even when faced with his two obnoxious children being generally awful people. That is until he gives in to his money problems and accepts a bribe from a student in exchange for a passing grade; he's then immediately called by his doctor about the apparently negative results of a chest X-ray, just as his son and his schoolfriends are about to be hit by a tornado. It's a comedy, apparently.
Lover of film, writer of words, pretentious beyond belief. Thinks Scorsese and Kubrick are the kings of cinema, but PT Anderson and David Fincher are the dashing young princes. Follow Brogan on twitter if you can take shameless self-promotion: @BroganMorris1
