All Critics (202)
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Top Critics (38)
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Fresh (184)
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Rotten (22)
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DVD (9)
The Coens may play around with that tradition, they may disparage it or mock it. But they are irrevocably a part of it, and that's all to the good.
If you're puzzled by the Coen Brothers' horrific comedies, this is the closest thing you'll get to an explanation.
Their most inside joke ever, it leaves you with a lot to chew on, if not a lot to enjoy.
Mostly, A Serious Man succeeds because it engages questions worth asking. What is integrity? Does our atavistic need for stories illuminate the meaning of life or further obfuscate it? What does it mean to be good and how are we to achieve it?
Life is pain. Life is funny. Things happen randomly, with no purpose or reason that can be discerned. Searching for answers is futile. Enjoy what you can.
This parable of the welcome-unwelcome guest is less a key to the ensuing domestic drama than a teasing reminder of the traditional roots of the brothers' singular skill with humor and violence.
I guess gleeful misanthropy wasn't enough for the Coen Brothers. Now they want to make it clear that God ... excuse me, Hashem ... is an unforgiving bastard.
Brilliant but bleak comedy for mature Coen brothers fans.
Joel and Ethan Coen love to play God; they put their characters through hell, torturing them endlessly and treating them with disdain before finally giving them peace (usually through death, madness or some form of imprisonment).
[A] film to be intuitively understood on an almost gut level and discussing it at length later to unravel its nuances is part of the pleasure of seeing such a film.
A sincerely sympathetic portrait of an American family man in crisis -- even as it insults its characters and derides their culture.
It's serious about the craft of storytelling, both in form and function, with a dedication to characterization, pitch-perfect performances, and a cinematic backdrop that is both severely nostalgic and completely immersive.
It's definitely a film worth seeing.
In terms of putting a protagonist through the wringer, the directors haven't been quite this cruel since Barton Fink, a film which shares A Serious Man's penchant for extremely black - actually, make that bleak - humor.
A Serious Man is several barrels full of laughs. But it's as serious-minded about suffering and misfortune as any film I've seen.
The Coens the way I like them. This is their second best film after The Man Who Wasn't There.
In this Coen brothers comedy, a good-hearted, Midwestern family man finds his life unraveling at work and at home although he's done nothing to deserve it.
What emerges is a willingness to go the extra mile to create good period detail, from adding aerials to roofs, to wrangling cars from the right period and even going so far as to remove the tree line to give the suburban estate a 'newly built' feel.
Una farsa genial, con aires de tragedia, que resulta en una brillante alegoría sobre la condición humana. Una más para el podio de lo mejor de los Coen.
Simultaneamente divertido, melancólico e angustiante, Um Homem Sério é um filme de adultos para adultos.
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