fleetmind

Okay - saw A Serious Man tonight and loved it. The Coens do it again. The best thing about this movie? It's ambiguity! Sure, it's the story of Job...there are some serious pointers towards faith in this movie...but on the other hand (what a Jewish thing to say) it's ambiguity supports the atheistic side of things as well. I love movies with this interesting dichotomy.

I am a goyish atheist married to a Jewish atheist. Nevertheless, we both thoroughly enjoyed this film. On the superficial level, there is much to enjoy in the portrayal of Jewish suburban culture. But deeper than that go the questions of goodness and justice that we all face - the faithful and the unfaithful. For instance, I was absolutely wincing near the end when Larry changed the grade - simply because I happen to believe in rightness, justice and doing the right thing REGARDLESS of whether you have bad x-rays or a tornado hanging over your head.

In other words, I believe in goodness independent of God - as I expect most decent humans do. NO GOOD ever comes of taking the evil fork in the road - although I must say that that other wonderful Jewish filmmaker - Woody Allen - gave us a different outcome in his brilliant film Crimes and Misdemeanors.

But back to the Coens. All this is why they have given us such a great film - the ambiguity, the questions of life, and the simple humanness of it all. Not to mention the knockout performances by everyone in the cast. Everyone old and young was super - but ol' Adam Arkin - what a nice turn!