Wednesday, February 10, 2010

A Serious Man (2009)


!!! I've seen it in January 2010, so about 2-3 weeks ago.

A black comedy set in 1967 and centered on Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern professor who watches his life unravel when his wife prepares to leave him because his inept brother won't move out of the house. [imdb]

Nominated for 2 Oscars:

Best Picture
Best Original Screenplay

Auteur movies are tricky. And the Coen brothers really went far with this one, making it as least accessible as possible. I wanted to start this with: do you need to be Jewish to like this movie? The answer is obviously no, but I’m sure it would’ve help to understand it. I will never say it’s a bad movie; I just didn’t like it, especially in the first half.

The screenplay is deliberately written to get on your nerves, and the movie keeps you tense and uncomfortable for the most of it. So I know / hope it won’t win Original Screenplay and the Best Picture nomination is justified only by the 10 movies thing (worst idea ever). No performance really impressed me, but I did appreciate the movie getting a bit lighter towards the end. Best thing about it: the beautiful cinematography by Roger Deakins and the final shot.

My rating for the film: 5/10. Maybe my least favorite of the 10 nominees. Smart, but heavily annoying.

1 comment:

  1. I so did not get this movie. I know what you mean when you say it can not be said it's a bad movie. It's very well done, but it's so weird! I didn't know what it was trying to do and where it was going, I don't know how you settled for a 5, I find it extremely hard to rate.

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