A Guilty PleasureBy John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee"
"Man that is born of a woman is of few days, and full of trouble." Book of Job
The Coen Bros.' Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) has a life "full of trouble" in A Serious Man: His wife wants a divorce, his son cares only about the quality of F Troop TV reception, a favorable tenure decision is not certain, and the rabbis he seeks counsel from are distant and taciturn, at times offering only bromides to help Larry cope.
Larry is a modern-day Job whose life makes a pleasurable and amusing story especially as a reflection of Jewish culture and values.
After the success of the sometimes sadistically funny thriller and Oscar winner, No Country for Old Men, Ethan and Joel Coen have been free to experiment, as they did with the lukewarm Burn After Reading but now with the worthier A Serious Man. Heavily laden with Jewish culture, the film is a meticulous deconstruction of Jewish traditions and training.
Although there is much alluding to Jewish culture, nothing seems more appropriate than the Job-like ability of some Jews to suffer hardship, as one character does who returns from the dead just as the opening sequence devil does in Poland over 100 years ago. As fortune would have it, this contemporary ghostly visitor had an affair with Larry's wife while avowedly being Larry's close friend sending letters to his tenure committee. Larry-Job keeps going on in the face of life's ambiguities.
I have been blessed with Jewish friends who are usually serious scholars like Larry and devoted to their religion and their traditions. When they are neurotic, they never reach Larry's level.
As for guilt, this Catholic boy trumps them every time.
"When the truth is found to be lies/And all the joy within you dies/Don't you want somebody to love." Grace Slick
John DeSando teaches film at Franklin University and co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee, which can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com