| HeraldNet - Snohomish County's online news source |
 TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9, 2010 11:44 am |
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Entertainment 
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‘Serious Man' another Coen Brothers' winner The movie begins with a 10-minute prologue, in Yiddish, set in 19th-century Poland. This is immediately followed by the Jefferson Airplane's “Somebody to Love” blasting out of the theater speakers, as a kid in a Minneapolis grade school listens to music through his transistor radio.Who else but the Coen brothers, right? This is “A Serious Man,” the darkly funny but absolutely haunting new film by Joel and Ethan Coen, who (following “No Country for Old Men” and “Burn after Reading”) are clearly in a rich phase of their career. It's the Summer of Love, 1967, but things in the Minneapolis suburbs are somewhat different from what they are in the rest of the country. At the center of “A Serious Man” is Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor whose world suddenly begins to collapse on him. His wife (Sari Lennick) asks him to move out of their home because she's fallen in love with a buttery-voiced widower (Fred Melamed), another member of their close-knit Jewish community. Larry's kids (Aaron Wolff and Jessica McManus) are acting out in various ways, and his dotty brother (Richard Kind) can't find a place of his own to live. Someone's sending poison-pen letters about Larry to his school, plus he's broke. Then there's the sultry neighbor who likes to sun herself in the back yard, and wonders if Larry has “taken advantage of the new freedoms.” This dangerous character is played by Amy Landecker, in one of those letter-perfect five-minute performances that can make an actor's career. Like most of the other cast members (with the exception of sitcom-familiar Richard Kind and Adam Arkin), Landecker is a pretty obscure movie face. The Coens have filled “A Serious Man” with virtual unknowns, led by stage actor Stuhlbarg in a fine, understated performance. The style of the film will be instantly familiar to fans of the Coens: crisply shot and edited, self-conscious, funny one minute and serious the next. It's impeccably of the period, bringing some of the detailed appeal of TV's “Mad Men.” And, not surprisingly for the guys who made “Barton Fink,” “A Serious Man” is occasionally mystifying: The movie (beginning with that oddball prologue) is full of tall tales, dreams and enigmatic rabbinical advice, with an ending that at first feels like one of Larry's interrupted nightmares but will certainly come back to you days later. It all works, in a mysterious way. The Coens have been accused in the past of using their kooky style to denigrate their characters, but (as funny and weird as some of the people here are) this movie feels like a completely sympathetic-yet-satirical portrait of the way human beings live and the world they — we — live in. “A Serious Man” A funny but absolutely haunting new film from the Coen Brothers, set in a Jewish suburban community in Minneapolis in the summer of 1967. A professor (Michael Stuhlbarg) is beset by a series of problems, which play out with dreamlike relentlessness — a situation that works as comedy but is also enigmatic, as the Coens have played it in the past. Rated: R for language, nudity Showing: Harvard Exit |
- A revolutionary 747
- Fire breaks out at Everett car dealer
- Everett rethinks boutique wineries
- A tidy lawn could be law in Lynnwood
- Snohomish County's bargain housing won't last
- Boeing's 747-8 takes off after weather delay
- Plan for I-5 closures this week
- A new bowling alley for Monroe?
- Lake Stevens man homeless after fire
- I-5 bridge joint may give you a jolt, but it isn't damaged
- A tidy lawn could be law in Lynnwood
(10) - Vote on school levies by Tuesday (9)
- Everett police officers cleared in 2008 shooting death (5)
- 1949 travel aid shows how few places blacks were welcome in Washington (4)
- Everett rethinks boutique wineries (4)
- Life story: Man fought depression courageously, family says (3)
- I-5 bridge joint may give you a jolt, but it isn't damaged (3)
- Toyota has powerful D.C. friends (3)
- Snohomish County's bargain housing won't last (3)
- Three politicians who want Gregoire's job in 2012 (2)
- Edmonds educator, famous announcer dies
- Mill Creek to appeal ruling on annexation
- Through the air, with the greatest of ease
- E-W thriving under new coach
- The path to citizenship
- EUUC puts on ‘Pants & Shoes’
- Wolfpack wins the ‘Battle'
- Lynnwood’s annexation plans OK’d
- Arlington's Cascade Valley Hospital celebrates expansion, national award and 100 years of service
- Business Licences Feb. 2010
- Technology tips for launching your own business
- Business Events Feb. 2010
- Tech Talk: No excuse today for going without a Web site
- State already raising fees and rates that restrict business growth
- Some legislators again targeting people’s initiative petition rights
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