A Serious Man: Underrated Coen Brothers Gem on Absurdity 😲
When we first watched A Serious Man (2009) about 16 years ago, we were disappointed by the Coen brothers film. Watching it again the other week and we’re much more appreciative of its absurdist themes and quietly bleak premise.
Starring Michael Stuhlbarg as physics professor Lawrence “Larry” Gopnik, the absurd, Kafkaesque narrative follows his life quietly imploding for a multitude of reasons, with no purpose behind each ridiculous development.
Why the Hell is Everything Going Wrong in A Serious Man?
16 years is a big old gap between watching films. Maybe we were just a bit annoyed that day 16-ish years ago when we watch the film, but it disappoint. We’re big fans of the Coen brothers and A Serious Man just seemed… flat.
Watching it again and in that flatness lies its brilliance.
The film is set in April of 1967 in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. Across 106 minutes, it shows Larry Gopnik’s life slowly unravelling as a ridiculous series of events upend his middle-class suburban existence. That begins with his wife Judith (Sari Lennick) suddenly announcing she wants a divorce as she intends to marry the much older Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed).
Then the South Korean student Clive (David Kang) tries to bribe Larry into providing a better grade, which the student’s father later threatens to enforce.
Around that, Larry’s son Danny (Aaron Wolff) is often stoned, loves Jefferson Airplane, is vaguely practicing for his bar mitzvah, but more preoccupied with the poor TV reception at the family home. His daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus) is belligerent and obsessed with washing her hair with a variety of shampoos.
Then Sy Ableman suddenly dies in a car crash, with Larry expected to foot the bill for the funeral.
As these absurd events stack up, they take a toll on Larry’s mental health and he has a crisis of faith. He tries to seek moral and philosophical support from various rabbi. This results in further bizarre, useless experiences.
Definitely one of the Coen brother’s best lines right there.
“Things aren’t so bad, look at the parking lot, Larry! Just look at that parking lot…”
What impresses us more is the film doesn’t offer any clear narrative conclusion. It ends with Larry thinking his life is returning to normal, before receiving an ominous phone call from his doctor. All of which creates the overriding themes of absurdity and the nature of suffering.
Larry is baffled on a cosmic scale. Why is everything going wrong when he’s done everything right? Where not even the Schrödinger’s cat thought experiment can help him understand what in the name of bejeezus is happening to him.
We can understand why A Serious Man had a mixed reaction on launch. It’s very distinct in the Coen brothers’ canon, really unlike anything else they’ve done before.
It’s so quietly uneventful we can imagine some random cinema attendees watching it in 2009 baffled. We guess we were one of them, really, as it went over our heads.
A Serious Man followed on from the quirky black comedy Burn After Reading (2008). This effort is still comedic, but a dryly absurd sense. The ridiculous issues that pile up leave viewers watching this man questioning reality, seemingly powerless to process events despite his knowledge of physics.
But now watching it in 2026, our brains more fully formed, and we think this is one of their best films.
Understated, with some fantastic writing, and Michael Stuhlbarg’s performance wins the day. A mixture of perplexed, meets baffled, meets full blown existential crisis.
The Production of A Serious Man
The film was a moderate commercial success, making $31.4 million off its $7 million budget. Despite the mixed critical reception, it did make its way to many best films of 2009 lists for the American Film Institute and National Board of Reviews.
Plus, it was nominated for two Oscars with Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay.
This was also the breakout role for Michael Stuhlbarg. He had been intended to play a minor role, but the Coen brothers liked his performance so much they bumped him up to the lead. He’s since had roles in films such as Lincoln (2012), Blue Jasmine (2013), Arrival (2016), and in the TV series of Fargo (2017).
Of the wider cast, the Coens allowed open casting for Larry’s kids. This resulted in Aaron Wolff and Jessica McManus getting those roles. Excellent as they are, since then they’ve not been in any other films. Wolff has, instead, pursued a music career.
Filming took place in Bloomington, Minnesota, as the location still had a suburban rambler home appearance (as of 2009, anyway). This was still similar to how it would have looked in the 1960s.
The shoot took place in September 2008, wrapped in early November 2008, and all of it was done in 44 days. This always amazes us how quickly talented crews can get these projects wrapped up.
Since its launch in 2009, it kind of become an obscurity in the Coen brother’s canon. Films such as Fargo (celebrating its 30th anniversary recently) are the more emotionally heavy-hitting experiences. But recently, we saw it start popping up on social media getting mentions and retrospective fanboying. And that triggered us off to watch it again.
We’re glad we did as it really is an impressive work, just one that’s quite astonishingly subtle. It simmers away quietly and doesn’t have any major set pieces, buts its calm pursuit of Larry’s struggles offers all of us a lesson in life.
Ordinary inaction in a world of random unpredictability and how true meaning is, sometimes, just right there in a parking lot.
Just look at that parking lot, readers…
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