A Serious Man

Ethan Coen and Joel Coen watch a physics teacher in 1967 Minnesota lose everything at once: his wife wants out, his tenure is in doubt, his son’s bar mitzvah is coming. Larry asks three rabbis in turn for an explanation and gets none. The Yiddish tale that opens the film is not an inherited one. Ethan Coen said it felt right to start with a little Yiddish folk tale, but they knew no suitable one, so they made one up. The film manufactures its own tradition first and then declines to explain it. The brothers did not rebuild their own St. Louis Park street; they hunted a match. They shot in Bloomington, put the synagogue scenes in B’nai Emet at St. Louis Park and a classroom in a school then closed, with a photo book of 1950s and 60s Bloomington as reference. Roger Deakins returned after sitting one film out, and the shoot finished in 44 days, ahead of schedule and inside budget. Only 2 Academy nominations followed, best picture and original screenplay, and neither converted. A good fit if learning that the opening tale was invented rather than inherited tells you why the film refuses to answer. Not for anyone waiting for the three rabbi tour to add up; the ending cuts off mid event.