The American Spectator : Two Unserious Men

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Two Unserious Men

By James Bowman on 10.27.09 @ 6:02AM

The Coen brothers are incapable of seriousness, even when dealing with the most serious subjects.

The Coen brothers' new movie, A Serious Man, would have been better named for the brothers themselves: Two Unserious Men. They continue to infuriate as they have infuriated in every movie they have made since Fargo (at least), both the better and the worse: that is by being incapable of seriousness, even when dealing with the most serious subjects. And this one, meant to be a sort of Biblical Job-story updated and transplanted to a Minnesota college campus in 1967, is (potentially, at least) about as serious a subject as they come. Not serious enough, apparently. For the brothers are at it again, carrying on their argument with God -- a God they assume doesn't exist -- from No Country for Old Men. There, God's non-existence was kind of serious because the movie posited in His place a merciless cosmic sadist. It was Thomas Hardy's bitterly ironic "President of the Immortals" brought back for one more turn on the cosmic stage.

A Serious Man finds Him more persuasive as a supernal Prankster whose best joke is to make Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), the "serious man" of the title, think He exists and so try to placate Him when all the sorrows of the world -- or at least all those most likely to beset a middle-class American family in the 1960s -- come upon him. You know that program on Spiked TV called "1000 Ways to Die"? This movie attempts a similar sort of entertainment. The artifice of its construction, together with the jokes, acts as a kind of permission for us to laugh at the misfortunes of others in the same way that the anonymity of the TV program does. Sub specie aeternitatis, Larry's successive tragedies are really comedies, which is the source of the irony in the title. It's also the reason why this God, unlike the Deity of the Old Testament, is made to pull his punches, at least up until the end.

The movie begins with an apparently unrelated episode set in a Polish shtetl a century or so ago and presented entirely in Yiddish. Velvel (Allen Lewis Rickman) comes home with the news that his wagon has broken down on the road, and a man has come along to help him. He tells his wife, Dora (Yelena Shmulenson), that she knows the man. But when he names him, Dora shrieks: "We are ruined!" The man, it seems, has died three years ago and, if he is now wandering the roads, he must be a dybbuk or ghost. Then the man himself (Fyvush Finkel) arrives. Velvel refuses to believe that he is a dybbuk, but Dora remains unshaken in her conviction and stabs him in the heart with an ice pick. A little blossom of blood eventually appears, and the man staggers out into the snow. Was he man or dybbuk? Are they cursed by his visit or, as Velvel now believes, by having murdered him? Either way, things do not look good for them -- or, we might add, for European Jewry.

All this is apparently in illustration of the film's epigraph: "Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you." How do you intend that ironically? Well, if anyone can do it, the Coens can. Now we fast forward to Larry who has to deal with an unfaithful wife (Sari Lennick) who wants a divorce; the unwelcome but affectionate attentions to him of her lover (Fred Melamed); poison pen letters that are being sent to the tenure committee now sitting on him at the university; an attempted bribe from a failing Korean student (David Kang) and threats of violence against him from the student's family; a free-loading brother (Richard Kind) with a revolting illness and in trouble with the police; a pot-smoking teenage son (Aaron Wolff) in trouble from bullying drug dealers, and a vain, moody and unpleasant daughter (Jessica McManus); a goyish gun nut of a neighbor (Peter Breitmayer) on the one side of him, who is encroaching on his property, and a Jewish seductress (Amy Landecker) on the other side, who is luring him into an encounter with what she coyly calls "the new freedoms."

Well, these are not exactly the afflictions of Job. But to top them all off, a tornado and a worrying diagnosis from his doctor arrive at the same time -- and there the film ends. Obviously, the tornado and the coming meeting with the doctor could, jointly or severally, represent misfortunes to dwarf all those we have seen up to that point -- so great, indeed, as to spoil the amusement we are accustomed to taking in Larry's misfortunes. In the same way, we never learn in what, if anything, the putative curse on Velvel and Dora in the prologue might have consisted. That, too, might have made things too serious and, so, unfunny. If God is the Prankster he is here presented as being, he's a lot more tender-hearted than the Sadist of No Country. As usual with the Coen brothers, we are left with nothing of truth or reality, either natural or supernatural, but only a statement of the state of the Coen brothers' minds. They are, it seems, like the character in Peter DeVries's novel The Blood of the Lamb of whom it is said that "he could not forgive God for not existing." But the revenge they take on Him in A Serious Man seems to me less mocking than pathetic.

About the Author

James Bowman, our movie and culture critic, is a resident scholar at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. He is the author of Honor: A History and Media Madness: The Corruption of Our Political Culture, both published by Encounter Books.

Letter to the Editor View all comments (21) | Leave a comment

Georgie Girl| 10.27.09 @ 9:32AM

Just saw this movie last night. As usual, I came out asking myself, "why do I bother to see these brothers movies"? Absolutly no sense and no redeeming value to any of it. Don't bother!!

Appleby| 10.27.09 @ 9:49AM

Go and see Astro Boy instead. It's just like the original from the 1960s except the Anime is better realized and it's in colour.

And it's entertaining...and will not teach your children any throw-away lines that will make your grandmother faint.

Disinterested at 38| 10.27.09 @ 10:41AM

You lost me with "college campus in 1967." Gag, barf, yuck, booorrrinnngggg, I hear a foghorn,,,BORING! For the love of Peter, Paul and Mary, how many times do we have to re-live the freakin' sixties??!!!

Bo Darville| 10.27.09 @ 11:46AM

The Coen brothers make arrogant movies for arrogant people. Their smarmy disdain for ordinary people comes through in every scene.

John Navratil| 10.27.09 @ 1:09PM

I'm amazed! I have, with the possible exception of "Raising Arizona" , enjoyed their films. My favourite was "The Man Who Wasn't There" with Billy Bob Thornton, but it didn't get much play. "Burn After Reading" wasn't their best work and wasn't terribly well received, but I thought it was a thoroughly enjoyable farce. Brad Pitt as the gum-cracking trainer had to bring a smile.

I haven't seen this one, yet, but imagine I will. I guess that's why there is more than one flavour of ice cream.

Nick| 10.28.09 @ 12:14AM

That's funny!

"Raising Arizona" is the only movie of theirs I ever really liked. In fact, I found it hilarious.

John Navratil| 10.28.09 @ 9:26AM

How can serious conservatives possibly have different tastes in movies? It's just not allowed! :)

cuban pete| 10.27.09 @ 1:37PM

I am second to none in my regard for Mr.Bowman's insights but I must part company with his opinion of the Coen's work. I think their films are very entertaining.

Seek| 10.27.09 @ 2:15PM

James Bowman has a party line: Anything that reminds him of free-spiritedness, however well-conceived or made, arouses his ire. He's a living example of why piety is highly overrated as a virtue -- and highly underrated as a vice. That, and not artistic shortcomings, explains his loathing for "Fargo," "The Big Lebowski," "O Brother, Where Art Thou?," "No Country for Old Men" and now "A Serious Man," to which even John Podhoretz, no longtime Coens' fan, gave a rave thumbs-up in The Weekly Standard.

John II| 10.29.09 @ 3:54PM

Piety is never a vice. In its most basic sense, it means an alert sense of proportion whereby one knows one's place in the universe sufficiently well to direct one's worship correctly. We come into the world hardwired to worship; if we don't worship God, we'll inevitably worship something else--which explains the place of the first commandment in the Decalogue. Augustine points out that all human disorder is the consequence of misdirected worship, and the late Walker Percy, noting that the objects of idol-worship vary with the times, plausibly suggested (and illustrates in his novels) that the idol of choice in these times is the ego.

Bowman doesn't put it so bluntly, but I think his point is that the Coen brothers are, willy-nilly, impious.

The vice you're referring to is not piety, since piety is always a virtue. The vice you refer to is called pietism, which can be defined as a prim regard for one's own vague sense of piety.

The moral life is indeed complex and tricky and loaded with dramatic pitfalls and opportunities for artists to explore countless forms of self-delusion; but the moral life is not at all witless and muddy in the way suggested again and again by the Coens' entertaining flicks.

kerry| 10.27.09 @ 9:27PM

To me the movie seems to relay the idea that doing good is essentially pointless, because God and religion are a sham and all human behaviour is essentially self serving and shallow. T/o the film you feel frustrated at the main character's inability to express any anger or resentment, you want to fight back for him! Also, Mr.Bowman leaves out a significant, anti-American episode in the film- at the end with the tornado approaching the school yard, one of the boys looks up at the American flag on the flag pole whipping in the wind, and declares that it will get ripped off soon. Very strange and out of whack with the scene at hand....but I sensed a dark, or perhaps, viewing the seemingly marxist undertones to the movie, perhaps a sick sort of happy ending for those of a more liberal persuasion. Call me crazy!

Roughcoat| 10.27.09 @ 10:37PM

Where in No Country for Old Men was it stated--or implied, or indicated--that God doesn't exist and that His place has been taken by "a merciless cosmic sadist"? Someone please tell me. Seriously.

I thought the movie was about the mystery of evil: why it exists, what to do about it. If I'm right about that, then God must exist, otherwise there's no mystery.

Le Cracquere| 10.28.09 @ 1:07AM

There's a perception problem at work here: the Coen brothers' movies have usually been entirely serious. To account for Bowman's confusion, I refer you to Chesterton's famous dictum that there is a great difference, and no necessary correlation, between seriousness and SOLEMNITY.

Now, if you attend a Coen brothers movie, you should expect a degree of seriousness, but might get thrown off because it won't be presented with much solemnity. On the other hand, if you want large doses of po-faced solemnity, but don't require much seriousness ... well, a James Bowman review's a decent place to start.

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Getting Hercules to Help You Poptropica

Hercules won’t help you until you have all five items from Zeus’ quest. Once you have the five items, bring them to Athena. Zeus will appear and steal them. The big jerk! Once this happens, talk to Athena and she will tell you that Hercules will help you. You’ll need to have the magic mirror from Aphrodite because Hercules doesn’t want to have to walk. He’s so lazy!
Getting the Hydra Scale Poptropica

You can see how to do this in the videos, but basically you need to jump up when the Hydra is about to strike. He will rear one of his heads back to attack and his eyes will bulge out. Poptropica When this happens, jump up in the air and then try to land on top of his head. That head will get knocked out. When all five heads get knocked out, the Hydra will be asleep and you can click on him to get one of the scales. Poptropica I’ll have a full written walkthrough very soon, but in the meantime, here are some answers to some of the frequently asked questions about Mythology Island. Having trouble? Post a question in the comments and I’ll try to answer it!
Getting Hercules to Help You

Hercules won’t help you until you have all five items from Zeus’ quest. Poptropica Once you have the five items, bring them to Athena. Zeus will appear and steal them. The big jerk! Once this happens, talk to Athena and she will tell you that Hercules will help you.Poptropica. You’ll need to have the magic mirror from Aphrodite because Hercules doesn’t want to have to walk. He’s so lazy!
Getting the Hydra Scale

You can see how to do this in the videos, but basically you need to jump up when the Hydra is about to strike. He will rear one of his heads back to attack and his eyes will bulge out.Poptropica When this happens, jump up in the air and then try to land on top of his head. That head will get knocked out. When all five heads get knocked out, the Hydra will be asleep and you can click on him to get one of the scales. Poptropica