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Simply put, this film is an example of movies as literature. The Coens are one of the few auteurs who are able to pull off this feat. As with all of their work, this one continues to get better with each viewing. Their attention to detail in every decision from casting to set dressing to staging to the word choice in dialog and the direction they give the actors is all masterful.

I love this movie too. I read the script a while ago and remember it being very similar to the finished product. My friend wants to adapt this movie into a stage play and I think I know why. Although the movie is visual, I think the visuals really are used to enhance the dialogue, which is my favorite part of it anyway. "I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!"

How about this gem from Sy Ableman: Well, for instance, the Jolly Roger is quite livable. Not expensive, and the rooms are eminently habitable.

This film floored me like no other. Only because IT WAS MY CHILDHOOD put to film. I was a Jewish kid (one of four) in a creaky "metropolis" known as Manitowoc, WI. To see a "MIDWEST CONSERVATIVE JEWISH COMMUNITY IN THE 60's" on the big screen...it was almost too much to bear. The Coen boys got EVERYTHING RIGHT, to every single last detail. The egg-white painted hallways of hebrew school. The mystical old-as-time Rabbi in the borderline terrifying side office. The libidinous single bald man of the congregation who'd shamelessly sidle up to the women in the congregation, married or not. A perfect film. Lovely write up Mr. Raymond. And before you ask...no, I was not stoned during my bar mitzvah. But, in retrospect, I sure wish I had been! :D

Thanks for all your comments and it makes me happy to find fans of this script and movie. It only did about $9M in domestic B.O. and it's current IMDB rating is 7.0, tied for the lowest of all the Coen movies with Burn After Reading. But to me, this movie is a gem. Inspired in equal parts the Coens' youth, growing up as Midwestern Jews, and the Biblical story of Job, Larry learns the reality of the uncertainty principle, what he himself teaches, in a most visceral and direct way. Yes, Larry is a decent man, but that doesn't mean shit in the universe of A Serious Man. Nor does his son Danny, getting stoned before he goes through his bar mitzvah ceremony and called in to meet Rabbi Marshak, we think he is going to get hammered. But no, the old Rabbi, citing the members of Jefferson Airplane, each Jewish, gives the Sony Walkman back to Danny. As it say in the Bible, "The rain falls on the just and the unjust." The script itself is a joy to read, like all of the Coen screenplays. They have their own style that takes a bit of getting used to, but they have such a beautiful economy of words that still convey a visual story. And their dialogue! Think of the variety of their characters and story settings, what an ear they have for the spoken word. One final thing: Their use of music. To me, "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" is THE best choice of a song in a Coen movie as it conveys a central theme of True Grit. But "Somebody to Love" is a close second in A Serious Man. Check out the first verse: When the truth is found To be lies And all the joy Within you dies That is the movie. Right there. That is Larry's arc. And check the ending - which is perfect! - and how the song kicks back in. I just spent the last 2 weeks with 45 writers dissecting Coen brothers movie in my Coen Brothers and the Craft of Storytelling class. Amazing insights that confirm one absolute fact: The Coens are cinematic geniuses.

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