A Serious Man-Job As Quantum Indeterminancy

I'm a latecomer to Coen Bros fandom, as I've been slowly warming up to their works, via the lenses of The Dude (The Big Lebowski) and Rooster Cogburn (True Grit).  Like, say, Wes Anderson Or Paul Thomas Anderson, these guys truly use film as art, with an identifiable voice and way of looking at the world.  I'm not enough of an expert yet on their body of work to say definitively, but if I were to tie A Serious Man to the previously mentioned films, I would say they share a combo of the wanderer in circumstance and the quasi-quest, where it is a quest the central character is indeed on, but it doesn't feel like a quest.  It feels just like circumstance after circumstance, but there seemingly is purpose, though it may not be clear.

In this case, it is Lawrence "Larry" Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) we follow on the journey.  In his case, it is watching his life seemingly unravel, with his wife wanting a divorce, the guy she is hooking up with a condescending creep.  His kids are out of control.  His job as a physics professor, previously heading for tenure, has now hit a snag.  He loses his house, his cash.  He does have the hot busty lady next door to occasionally schtupp, but admittedly, that is small comfort in a world that is seemingly falling apart.  He goes to his mathematics for certainty...but according to quantum theory, of which he is intimately familiar with the mathematical proof, there is none.  And finally, he turns to his faith as a Jew.  He struggles there, as the senior Rabbi seems disengaged and the lower level Rabbis unhelpful.  But at least he sees hope in his son's approaching Mitvah.  But then...

Is it all destined to fall apart?  The film opens up with what looks like a Hebrew folk tale and the awakening of a curse.  The appearance of Larry's life looks like such a curse manifesting in full vengeance.

Yet, somehow Larry manages to maintain a brave face in the face of all this uncertainty.  He does trust his science.  He does trust his God.  Even in the face of Armageddon which seemingly approaches, he has faith that it all has meaning and in the end, it will be ok.

That is faith for our times.

Not an easy film.  But a worthy one.

Really effectively recreated 60s suburbia, too.