A Serious Man (2009)

The Coen Brothers pretty much do what they want in their own world. Their movies are usually slow-paced but the very particular characters and situations give them the necessary rhythm. As of late they have become more artistic and more difficult to follow, and their aims have become more obscure, and their jokes, I might say, more private (yes, I am aware of "Barton Fink", I have seen ALL of their movies). "A Serious Man" probes deeper into the Coen brothers world but it fails to deliver anything concrete or meaningful. Although the essence is there, there seems to be little point to make at the end. It starts with a completely out-of-place scene set in 17 or 18th century russia, spoken in russian. Off course that one can derive the metaphor from the subject, but the following movie is very little related to that, so, why was that scene there? It could fit another movie, but this one, well, far-fetched. Then it goes to 60s suburban america, and here is the story of a man to whom a series of misfortunes happen one after another (Coen brothers and the biblical metaphors again). But, although the strange coen-funny-secondary-characters are there, the coen-situations are there (many similar to previous movies), it is just a series of unfortunate events, without logic, without justification, without an ultimate point. Ok, the point (and it is proven at the end) is that no matter what happens (wife with another man, threaten to lose job, etc, etc) in the end there will always be a bigger fish, meaning, something worse will always happen to make the past look insignificant. But spend 100 minutes of random everything-go-wrong-scenes at a very slow pace as this schoolteachers' life is falling apart to prove this point makes one leave the theatre with a feeling of having seen a without meaning film, despite the moral, despite the funny situations and characters, despite the visual mastery of the co-directors. Didn't do it for me, I am sorry to say, because I like the Coen Brothers. I think they are too much trapped in their own world and art to care about an audience now. I am probably being unjust but there it is. This movie tries to make you think of pathos and fate, but it lacks the strength to make the message come through.