20 Things You Didn't Know About A Serious Man
8. The Film's Title Drop
It is common for films to mention their titles, and this artistic choice varies greatly from film to film (see Jurassic Park and Suicide Squad for how to and how to not do this respectively). The Coens chose to use this device to highlight its protagonist's nature and his role in the film's increasingly surreal events.
The film's title is used in reference to Sy Abelman might be an allusion to the book ''the Ethics of Ambiguity'' by Simone de Beauvoir. In the book, she describes a serious man as ''someone who gets rid of his freedom by claiming to subordinate it to values which would be unconditioned''.
This could also describe Larry Gopnik's nebbish persona to some degree as he commits to a particular ideal of how life should play out and seeks to understand what God has intended for him.