A Serious Man
Encyclopedia
A Serious Man is a 2009 dark comedy written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen
. The film stars Michael Stuhlbarg
as a Minnesota Jewish man whose life crumbles both professionally and personally, leading to questions about his faith. The film has attracted a positive critical response, including a Golden Globe nomination for Stuhlbarg, a place on both the American Film Institute
's and National Board of Review
's Top 10 Film Lists of 2009, and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture
.
shtetl
in the early 20th century, a Jewish man, Velvel (Allen Lewis Rickman), tells his wife Dora (Yelena Shmuelenson) that he had been helped on his way home by Traitle Groshkover, whom he has invited in for soup. Dora objects, saying Groshkover is dead, and that this visitor must be a dybbuk
. When he arrives, Groshkover (Fyvush Finkel
) laughs off the accusation, but Dora plunges an icepick into his chest. Bleeding, he exits into the snowy night.
In Minnesota
in 1967, Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg
) is a professor of physics whose wife, Judith (Sari Lennick
), abruptly informs him that she needs a get
(a Jewish divorce document) so she can marry widower Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed
).
Three other people reside at Larry and Judith's house. Their son Danny (Aaron Wolff) owes twenty dollars for marijuana to an intimidating Hebrew school
classmate, but the bill is hidden in a transistor radio since confiscated by his teacher. Daughter Sarah is always doing her hair. Larry's brother, Arthur (Richard Kind
), sleeps on the couch and spends his free time filling a notebook with an extravagant theory that will, he claims, tie together all natural laws.
Larry faces an impending vote on his application for tenure
, and his department head lets slip that anonymous letters have urged the committee to deny him. Clive Park, a student worried about losing his scholarship, meets with Larry in his office to argue he should not fail the class. After he leaves, Larry finds an envelope stuffed with cash. When Larry attempts to return it, Clive's father comes to his house to threaten to sue either for defamation if Larry accuses Clive of bribery, or for keeping the money if he does not give him a passing grade.
At the insistence of Judith and Sy, Larry and Arthur move into a nearby motel. Judith has emptied the couple's bank accounts, leaving Larry penniless, so he enlists the services of a sympathetic divorce attorney (Adam Arkin
). Larry learns Arthur faces charges of solicitation and sodomy
, despite his previous attendance at "mixers."
To cope with his streak of unfortunate circumstances, Larry turns to his Jewish faith. The two rabbi
s he consults are either obtuse, oblivious, or obscure. His synagogue's senior rabbi is never available. Larry's mental state reaches a breaking point when he and Sy are involved in seemingly simultaneous, but separate, car crashes. Larry is unharmed, but Sy is killed. At Judith's insistence, Larry pays for Sy's funeral.
Larry is proud and moved by Danny's bar mitzvah, unaware of his son's distractions from nerves and marijuana. During the service, Judith apologizes to Larry for all the recent trouble and informs him that Sy liked him so much that he even wrote letters to the tenure committee. Danny meets with the senior rabbi in his office, where the old man — who has had Danny's transistor radio in his desk — quotes almost verbatim from the Jefferson Airplane
song "Somebody To Love
". When he returns the radio, he counsels Danny to "be a good boy."
Larry's department head compliments him on Danny's bar mitzvah and hints that he will win tenure. Upon receiving the bill for Arthur's criminal lawyer, Larry decides to pass Clive. Larry's doctor calls, asking to see him immediately to talk about the results of a chest X-ray. At the same moment, Danny's teacher struggles to open the school's shelter door as a massive tornado bears down on them.
Open auditions for the roles of Danny and Sarah were held on May 4, 2008, at the Sabes Jewish Community Center in St. Louis Park, Minnesota
, one of the scheduled shooting locations for the film. Open auditions for the role of Sarah were also held in June 2008 in Chicago, Illinois
.
as they would have appeared in St. Louis Park, Minnesota
, in the late 1960s. Locations were scouted in nearby communities Edina
, Richfield
, Brooklyn Center
, and Hopkins
before a suitable location was found in Bloomington
. The look of the film is partly based on the Brad Zellar book Suburban World: The Norling Photographs, a collection of photographs of Bloomington in the 1950s and 60s.
Longtime collaborator Roger Deakins
rejoined the Coen brothers as cinematographer
, following his absence from Burn After Reading
. This is the tenth film he has worked on with the Coen brothers.
Costume designer Mary Zophres
returns for her ninth collaboration with the directors.
The "folk tale" that serves as the prologue was written by the Coen brothers. They claim the story has no function except to set the proper tone for what follows. Roger Ebert suggests that its married couple may have brought a curse on Larry by inviting a dybbuk across their threshold. A portrait of Reb Groshkover is glimpsed on the wall inside Rabbi Marshak's office later in the film.
The tornado
seen bearing down on Minneapolis at the film's climax was inspired by the 1967 Southern Minnesota tornado outbreak
.
Location filming began on September 8, 2008, in Minnesota
. An office scene was shot at Normandale Community College
in Bloomington. The film also used a set built in the school's library, as well as small sections of the second floor science building hallway. The synagogue is the B'nai Emet Synagogue
in St. Louis Park. The Coen brothers also shot some scenes in St. Olaf College
's old science building because of its similar period architecture. Scenes were also shot at the Minneapolis legal offices of Meshbesher & Spence, the name of whose founder and president, Ronald I. Meshbesher
, is mentioned as the criminal lawyer recommended to Larry in the film. Filming wrapped on November 6, 2008, after 44 days, ahead of schedule and within budget.
Anachronism
s are evident in the film with references to two albums, Carlos Santana
's Abraxas
and Creedence Clearwater Revival
's Cosmo's Factory
, both of which were released in 1970.
The ending credits contain an Easter egg
: "No Jews were harmed in the making of this motion picture."
(who has composed the music for all the Coens' movies except O Brother, Where Art Thou?
). The soundtrack included several songs from from the Jefferson Airplane
album Surrealistic Pillow
, including "Somebody to Love
," "Today
," "Comin' Back to Me
," and "3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds." The soundtrack also featured "Machine Gun" from Jimi Hendrix
's live album Band of Gypsys
, and some pieces of Yiddish music including Mark Warshawsky
's "Dem Milner's Treren" performed by Sidor Belarsky
.
on October 2, 2009, in the United States. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival
on September 12, 2009.
A Serious Man was released on DVD
and Blu-ray
in North America on February 9, 2010.
As of February 10, 2010, it has had worldwide gross earnings of $31,312,437 It has received mostly positive reviews from critics, with an aggregate score of 89% from Rotten Tomatoes
, based on 194 reviews. Roger Ebert
, of the Chicago Sun-Times
, rated the film four out of four stars, feeling that it "bears every mark of a labor of love," and Variety
s Todd McCarthy commented that "the Coens' filmmaking skills are sharply attentive," and that A Serious Man is "the kind of picture you get to make after you've won an Oscar". Claudia Puig of USA Today
writes, "A Serious Man is a wonderfully odd, bleakly comic and thoroughly engrossing film. Underlying the grim humor are serious questions about faith, family, mortality and misfortune." Time
critic Richard Corliss
describes it as "disquieting" and "haunting." Christy Lemire
called it "the Coens' most thoughtful and personal film" and gave it three-and-a-half stars out of four.
The St. Petersburg Times
s Steve Persall wrote that the main character would remind Bible readers of the Book of Job despite some important differences. The Coens themselves have allowed that, while there may be allusions to Job, the "germ" of the story was a rabbi from their adolescence, a "mysterious figure" who had a private conversation with each student at the conclusion of their religious education. The Wall Street Journals Joe Morgenstern
disliked what he saw as misanthropy
in the film, saying that "...their caricatures range from dislikable through despicable, with not a smidgeon of humanity to redeem them." David Denby
from The New Yorker
enjoyed the look and feel of the film, but found fault with the script and characterization: "A Serious Man, like Burn After Reading
, is in their bleak, black, belittling mode, and it's hell to sit through... As a piece of movie-making craft, A Serious Man is fascinating; in every other way, it's intolerable."
and nominated for Best Actor in the 67th Annual Golden Globe Award
s. Stuhlbarg, Kind, Melamed and Lennick were nominated for a Gotham Award for Best Performance by an Ensemble Cast
. Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, casting directors Ellen Chenoweth and Rachel Tenner, along with actors Kind, Lennick, Melamed, Stuhlbarg, Wolff and McManus were awarded the Robert Altman Spirit Award by Film Independent for Excellence in Collaborative Cinematic Achievement by Directors, Casting Directors and an Ensemble Cast. Deakins received the Best Cinematography awards at both the 2009 Hollywood Awards and the 2009 San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards, as well as the Nikola Tesla Award at the Satellite Awards and the Best Cinematography award at the Independent Spirit Awards
. A Serious Man was nominated for an MPSE Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing: Dialogue and ADR in a Feature Film.
The Coen brothers were awarded Best Original Screenplay at the 2009 National Board of Review Awards and Best Original Screenplay from the National Society of Film Critics Awards 2009
, and have been nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay
and the BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay. A Serious Man was nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay in the Broadcast Film Critics Association
's 15th Annual Critics' Choice Awards, and by the Boston Society of Film Critics
, Best Picture by the Chicago Film Critics Association
. The film was listed as one of the ten best films of 2009 by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures
, the American Film Institute
, the Satellite Awards and the Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards
.
A Serious Man was nominated for Best Original Screenplay (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen) and Best Picture
at the 82nd Academy Awards
. BBC News
called it "one of the less talked about nominees" for Best Picture; they also noted that lead actor Stuhlbarg received his invitation to the ceremony at the last minute.
Coen Brothers
Joel David Coen and Ethan Jesse Coen known together professionally as the Coen brothers, are American filmmakers...
. The film stars Michael Stuhlbarg
Michael Stuhlbarg
Michael S. Stuhlbarg is an American theatre, film and television actor.-Life and career:Stuhlbarg was born in Long Beach, California and raised in Reform Judaism. He trained at Juilliard School and also studied acting at the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, University of London and UCLA...
as a Minnesota Jewish man whose life crumbles both professionally and personally, leading to questions about his faith. The film has attracted a positive critical response, including a Golden Globe nomination for Stuhlbarg, a place on both the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
's and National Board of Review
National Board of Review of Motion Pictures
The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures was founded in 1909 in New York City, just 13 years after the birth of cinema, to protest New York City Mayor George B. McClellan, Jr.'s revocation of moving-picture exhibition licenses on Christmas Eve 1908. The mayor believed that the new medium...
's Top 10 Film Lists of 2009, and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
.
Plot
In a PolishPoles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
shtetl
Shtetl
A shtetl was typically a small town with a large Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe until The Holocaust. Shtetls were mainly found in the areas which constituted the 19th century Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire, the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Galicia and Romania...
in the early 20th century, a Jewish man, Velvel (Allen Lewis Rickman), tells his wife Dora (Yelena Shmuelenson) that he had been helped on his way home by Traitle Groshkover, whom he has invited in for soup. Dora objects, saying Groshkover is dead, and that this visitor must be a dybbuk
Dybbuk
In Jewish folklore, a dybbuk is a malicious or malevolent possessing spirit believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person.Dybbuks are said to have escaped from Sheol or to have been turned away for serious transgressions, such as suicide, for which the soul is denied entry...
. When he arrives, Groshkover (Fyvush Finkel
Fyvush Finkel
Philip “Fyvush” Finkel is an American actor best known as a star of Yiddish theater and for his role as lawyer Douglas Wambaugh on the television series Picket Fences, for which he earned an Emmy Award in 1994. He is also known for his portrayal of Harvey Lipschultz, a crotchety U.S...
) laughs off the accusation, but Dora plunges an icepick into his chest. Bleeding, he exits into the snowy night.
In Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
in 1967, Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg
Michael Stuhlbarg
Michael S. Stuhlbarg is an American theatre, film and television actor.-Life and career:Stuhlbarg was born in Long Beach, California and raised in Reform Judaism. He trained at Juilliard School and also studied acting at the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, University of London and UCLA...
) is a professor of physics whose wife, Judith (Sari Lennick
Sari Lennick
Sari Wagner Lennick is an American actress. She is one of the stars of the Coen brothers 2009 film A Serious Man. Her previous work has been in theatre. She has performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.Lennick was born and raised in Miami, Florida....
), abruptly informs him that she needs a get
Get (divorce document)
A is a divorce document, which according to Jewish Law, must be presented by a husband to his wife to effect their divorce. The essential text of the is quite short: "You are hereby permitted to all men," i.e., the wife is no longer a married woman, and the laws of adultery no longer apply...
(a Jewish divorce document) so she can marry widower Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed
Fred Melamed
Fred Melamed is a U.S. actor and writer.He was born in New York City, and received his theatrical training at Hampshire College and the Yale School of Drama. At Yale, he was a Samuel F. B. Morse College Graduate Fellow. He was also a nominee for the Irene Ryan Award, a prize conferred upon the...
).
Three other people reside at Larry and Judith's house. Their son Danny (Aaron Wolff) owes twenty dollars for marijuana to an intimidating Hebrew school
Hebrew school
Hebrew school can be either the Jewish equivalent of Sunday school - an educational regimen separate from secular education, focusing on topics of Jewish history and learning the Hebrew language, or a primary, secondary or college level educational institution where some or all of the classes are...
classmate, but the bill is hidden in a transistor radio since confiscated by his teacher. Daughter Sarah is always doing her hair. Larry's brother, Arthur (Richard Kind
Richard Kind
Richard John Kind is an American actor known for his roles in the sitcoms Mad About You and Spin City .- Early life :...
), sleeps on the couch and spends his free time filling a notebook with an extravagant theory that will, he claims, tie together all natural laws.
Larry faces an impending vote on his application for tenure
Tenure
Tenure commonly refers to life tenure in a job and specifically to a senior academic's contractual right not to have his or her position terminated without just cause.-19th century:...
, and his department head lets slip that anonymous letters have urged the committee to deny him. Clive Park, a student worried about losing his scholarship, meets with Larry in his office to argue he should not fail the class. After he leaves, Larry finds an envelope stuffed with cash. When Larry attempts to return it, Clive's father comes to his house to threaten to sue either for defamation if Larry accuses Clive of bribery, or for keeping the money if he does not give him a passing grade.
At the insistence of Judith and Sy, Larry and Arthur move into a nearby motel. Judith has emptied the couple's bank accounts, leaving Larry penniless, so he enlists the services of a sympathetic divorce attorney (Adam Arkin
Adam Arkin
Adam Arkin is an American television, film and stage actor and director. He played the role of Aaron Shutt on Chicago Hope. He has been nominated for numerous awards, including a Tony as well as 3 primetime Emmys, 4 SAG Awards , and a DGA Award...
). Larry learns Arthur faces charges of solicitation and sodomy
Sodomy
Sodomy is an anal or other copulation-like act, especially between male persons or between a man and animal, and one who practices sodomy is a "sodomite"...
, despite his previous attendance at "mixers."
To cope with his streak of unfortunate circumstances, Larry turns to his Jewish faith. The two rabbi
Rabbi
In Judaism, a rabbi is a teacher of Torah. This title derives from the Hebrew word רבי , meaning "My Master" , which is the way a student would address a master of Torah...
s he consults are either obtuse, oblivious, or obscure. His synagogue's senior rabbi is never available. Larry's mental state reaches a breaking point when he and Sy are involved in seemingly simultaneous, but separate, car crashes. Larry is unharmed, but Sy is killed. At Judith's insistence, Larry pays for Sy's funeral.
Larry is proud and moved by Danny's bar mitzvah, unaware of his son's distractions from nerves and marijuana. During the service, Judith apologizes to Larry for all the recent trouble and informs him that Sy liked him so much that he even wrote letters to the tenure committee. Danny meets with the senior rabbi in his office, where the old man — who has had Danny's transistor radio in his desk — quotes almost verbatim from the Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
song "Somebody To Love
Somebody to Love (Jefferson Airplane song)
"Somebody to Love" is a rock song that was written by Darby Slick and originally recorded by 1960s folk rock band The Great Society and later by the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane...
". When he returns the radio, he counsels Danny to "be a good boy."
Larry's department head compliments him on Danny's bar mitzvah and hints that he will win tenure. Upon receiving the bill for Arthur's criminal lawyer, Larry decides to pass Clive. Larry's doctor calls, asking to see him immediately to talk about the results of a chest X-ray. At the same moment, Danny's teacher struggles to open the school's shelter door as a massive tornado bears down on them.
Cast and characters
- Michael StuhlbargMichael StuhlbargMichael S. Stuhlbarg is an American theatre, film and television actor.-Life and career:Stuhlbarg was born in Long Beach, California and raised in Reform Judaism. He trained at Juilliard School and also studied acting at the National Youth Theatre of Great Britain, University of London and UCLA...
as Lawrence "Larry" Gopnik; an actor relatively unknown to film audiences, Stuhlbarg was cast on the strength of his theatrical work in New York. He initially auditioned for the prologue but was called back to read for the parts of Arthur and Larry, eventually being cast in the lead role. - Richard KindRichard KindRichard John Kind is an American actor known for his roles in the sitcoms Mad About You and Spin City .- Early life :...
as Arthur Gopnik - Sari LennickSari LennickSari Wagner Lennick is an American actress. She is one of the stars of the Coen brothers 2009 film A Serious Man. Her previous work has been in theatre. She has performed at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe.Lennick was born and raised in Miami, Florida....
as Judith Gopnik; Lennick was inspired by the confidence the Coens had in her; they consulted her on the character details and allowed her to make the character her own. - Fred MelamedFred MelamedFred Melamed is a U.S. actor and writer.He was born in New York City, and received his theatrical training at Hampshire College and the Yale School of Drama. At Yale, he was a Samuel F. B. Morse College Graduate Fellow. He was also a nominee for the Irene Ryan Award, a prize conferred upon the...
as Sy Ableman - Aaron Wolff as Danny Gopnik
- Jessica McManus as Sarah Gopnik
- Alan Mandell as Rabbi Marshak
- Adam ArkinAdam ArkinAdam Arkin is an American television, film and stage actor and director. He played the role of Aaron Shutt on Chicago Hope. He has been nominated for numerous awards, including a Tony as well as 3 primetime Emmys, 4 SAG Awards , and a DGA Award...
as Don Milgram - George WynerGeorge WynerGeorge Wyner is an American film and television actor. He is probably best known for his role as ADA Bernstein on the series Hill Street Blues. Wyner graduated from Syracuse University in 1968 as a drama major, and was an in-demand character actor by the early 1970s. To date, Wyner has made guest...
as Rabbi Nachtner - Amy LandeckerAmy Landecker-External links:...
as Mrs. Vivienne Samsky; in an interview with actress Landecker, she said that the first name of Mrs. Samsky is in fact Vivienne and was based on a real neighbor of the Coen brothers - Katherine Borowitz as Mimi Nudell
- Allen Lewis Rickman as Velvel
- Yelena Shmuelenson as Dora
- Fyvush FinkelFyvush FinkelPhilip “Fyvush” Finkel is an American actor best known as a star of Yiddish theater and for his role as lawyer Douglas Wambaugh on the television series Picket Fences, for which he earned an Emmy Award in 1994. He is also known for his portrayal of Harvey Lipschultz, a crotchety U.S...
as Traitle Groshkover - Simon HelbergSimon HelbergSimon Maxwell Helberg is an American actor and comedian. He is best known for his role as Howard Wolowitz in the sitcom The Big Bang Theory. In its fourth season, he also appeared on the sketch comedy series MADtv for five episodes...
as Rabbi Scott Ginzler - Andrew S. Lentz as Mark Sallerson
- Jack Swiler as Howard Altar (boy on bus)
- Tim Harlan-Marks as Hebrew school bus driver
- Benjy Portnoe as Ronnie Nudell
- Brent Braunschweig as Mitch Brandt
- Ari Hoptman as Arlen Finkle
- Michael LernerMichael Lerner (actor)-Life and career:Lerner was born in Brooklyn, New York of Romanian Jewish descent, the son of Blanche and George Lerner, who was a fisherman and antiques dealer. He was raised in Bensonhurst and Red Hook. His brother, Ken Lerner, is also an actor...
as Solomon Schlutz - David Kang as Clive
- Steve ParkSteve Park (comedian)Steve Park is a Korean-American comedian. Originally a stand-up comedian, his best known work includes being a cast member of In Living Color during the 1991-1992 season and the roles of Mike Yanagita in Fargo, Sonny in Do The Right Thing and Detective Brian in Falling Down...
as Clive's father - Peter Breitmayer as Mr. Brandt
Open auditions for the roles of Danny and Sarah were held on May 4, 2008, at the Sabes Jewish Community Center in St. Louis Park, Minnesota
St. Louis Park, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 44,126 people, 20,782 households, and 10,557 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,122.5 persons per square mile . There were 21,140 housing units at an average density of 1,975.0 per square mile...
, one of the scheduled shooting locations for the film. Open auditions for the role of Sarah were also held in June 2008 in Chicago, Illinois
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
.
Production
Considerable attention was paid to the setting; it was important to the Coens to find a neighborhood of original-looking suburban rambler homesRanch-style house
Ranch-style houses is a domestic architectural style originating in the United States. First built in the 1920s, the ranch style was extremely popular amongst the booming post-war middle class of the 1940s to 1970s...
as they would have appeared in St. Louis Park, Minnesota
St. Louis Park, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 44,126 people, 20,782 households, and 10,557 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,122.5 persons per square mile . There were 21,140 housing units at an average density of 1,975.0 per square mile...
, in the late 1960s. Locations were scouted in nearby communities Edina
Edina, Minnesota
Edina is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and a first-ring suburb situated immediately southwest of Minneapolis. Edina began as a small farming and milling community in the 1860s. The population was 47,941 at the 2010 census.-Geography:...
, Richfield
Richfield, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 34,439 people, 15,073 households, and 8,727 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,993.9 people per square mile . There were 15,357 housing units at an average density of 2,226.9 per square mile...
, Brooklyn Center
Brooklyn Center, Minnesota
As of the census of 2010, there were 30,104 residents in Brooklyn Center. The racial makeup of the city was 49% White, 26% African American, 1% Native American, 14% Asian, 0.07% Pacific Islander, 5% from other races, and 4% from two or more races...
, and Hopkins
Hopkins, Minnesota
As of the census of 2000, there were 17,145 people, 8,224 households, and 3,741 families residing in the city. The population density was 4,205.9 people per square mile . There were 8,390 housing units at an average density of 2,058.2 pe square mile...
before a suitable location was found in Bloomington
Bloomington, Minnesota
Bloomington is the fifth largest city in the U.S. state of Minnesota in Hennepin County. Located on the north bank of the Minnesota River above its confluence with the Mississippi River, Bloomington lies at the heart of the southern...
. The look of the film is partly based on the Brad Zellar book Suburban World: The Norling Photographs, a collection of photographs of Bloomington in the 1950s and 60s.
Longtime collaborator Roger Deakins
Roger Deakins
Roger Antony Deakins, ASC, BSC is an English cinematographer best known for his work on the films of the Coen brothers. Deakins is a member of both the American and British Society of Cinematographers...
rejoined the Coen brothers as cinematographer
Cinematographer
A cinematographer is one photographing with a motion picture camera . The title is generally equivalent to director of photography , used to designate a chief over the camera and lighting crews working on a film, responsible for achieving artistic and technical decisions related to the image...
, following his absence from Burn After Reading
Burn After Reading
Burn After Reading is a 2008 black comedy film written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The film stars George Clooney, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Brad Pitt. It was released in the United States on September 12, 2008, and it was released on October 17, 2008...
. This is the tenth film he has worked on with the Coen brothers.
Costume designer Mary Zophres
Mary Zophres
Mary Zophres is an American costume designer. She was recently nominated for an Academy Award for her costume work on True Grit. This nomination at the 2010 Oscars marked her first. Zophres previously worked on Born on the Fourth of July...
returns for her ninth collaboration with the directors.
The "folk tale" that serves as the prologue was written by the Coen brothers. They claim the story has no function except to set the proper tone for what follows. Roger Ebert suggests that its married couple may have brought a curse on Larry by inviting a dybbuk across their threshold. A portrait of Reb Groshkover is glimpsed on the wall inside Rabbi Marshak's office later in the film.
The tornado
Tornado
A tornado is a violent, dangerous, rotating column of air that is in contact with both the surface of the earth and a cumulonimbus cloud or, in rare cases, the base of a cumulus cloud. They are often referred to as a twister or a cyclone, although the word cyclone is used in meteorology in a wider...
seen bearing down on Minneapolis at the film's climax was inspired by the 1967 Southern Minnesota tornado outbreak
1967 Southern Minnesota tornado outbreak
The 1967 Southern Minnesota tornado outbreak was a tornado outbreak that affected portions of south central and southeast Minnesota on Sunday, April 30, 1967. The outbreak spawned a total of nine tornadoes resulting in thirteen deaths and eighty injuries...
.
Location filming began on September 8, 2008, in Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
. An office scene was shot at Normandale Community College
Normandale Community College
Normandale Community College is a two-year college located in Bloomington, Minnesota, serving primarily the communities of the southwestern portion of the Minneapolis-Saint Paul metropolitan area. Established in 1968 as Normandale State Junior College with an initial enrollment of 1,358 students,...
in Bloomington. The film also used a set built in the school's library, as well as small sections of the second floor science building hallway. The synagogue is the B'nai Emet Synagogue
B'nai Emet Synagogue (St. Louis Park, Minnesota)
B'nai Emet Synagogue is a Conservative synagogue located in St. Louis Park, Minnesota affiliated with the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism. St...
in St. Louis Park. The Coen brothers also shot some scenes in St. Olaf College
St. Olaf College
St. Olaf College is a coeducational, residential, four-year, private liberal arts college in Northfield, Minnesota, United States. It was founded in 1874 by a group of Norwegian-American immigrant pastors and farmers, led by Pastor Bernt Julius Muus. The college is named after Olaf II of Norway,...
's old science building because of its similar period architecture. Scenes were also shot at the Minneapolis legal offices of Meshbesher & Spence, the name of whose founder and president, Ronald I. Meshbesher
Ronald I. Meshbesher
Ronald I. Meshbesher is a prominent trial attorney and President of The Minnesota law firm Meshbesher & Spence. Mr. Meshbesher began practicing law at the age of twenty-four in the Hennepin County Attorney's Office as a prosecutor, where he tried forty-five felony cases in his first three years...
, is mentioned as the criminal lawyer recommended to Larry in the film. Filming wrapped on November 6, 2008, after 44 days, ahead of schedule and within budget.
Anachronism
Anachronism
An anachronism—from the Greek ανά and χρόνος — is an inconsistency in some chronological arrangement, especially a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other...
s are evident in the film with references to two albums, Carlos Santana
Carlos Santana
Carlos Augusto Alves Santana is a Mexican rock guitarist. Santana became famous in the late 1960s and early 1970s with his band, Santana, which pioneered rock, salsa and jazz fusion...
's Abraxas
Abraxas (album)
Abraxas is the second studio album by the Latin influenced rock band Santana. Consolidating their highly acclaimed live performance at the Woodstock Festival in August of 1969, and the interest generated by their first album, Santana , the band took some time to issue a follow-up...
and Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival
Creedence Clearwater Revival was an American rock band that gained popularity in the late 1960s and early 1970s with a number of successful singles drawn from various albums....
's Cosmo's Factory
Cosmo's Factory
Cosmo's Factory is the fifth studio album by American rock band Creedence Clearwater Revival, released by Fantasy Records in July 1970 and released as Fantasy 8402, the same month as the single release of "Lookin' out My Back Door" b/w "Long As I Can See the Light" .The name of the album comes from...
, both of which were released in 1970.
The ending credits contain an Easter egg
Easter egg (media)
Image:Carl Oswald Rostosky - Zwei Kaninchen und ein Igel 1861.jpg|250px|thumb|right|Example of Easter egg hidden within imagerect 467 383 539 434 desc none...
: "No Jews were harmed in the making of this motion picture."
Soundtrack
The film's original music was composed by Carter BurwellCarter Burwell
Carter Benedict Burwell is an American composer of film scores.-Life and career:Burwell was born in New York City, the son of Natalie , a math teacher, and Charles Burwell, who founded Thaibok Fabrics, Ltd...
(who has composed the music for all the Coens' movies except O Brother, Where Art Thou?
O Brother, Where Art Thou?
O Brother, Where Art Thou? is a 2000 comedy film directed by Joel and Ethan Coen and starring George Clooney, John Turturro, Tim Blake Nelson, John Goodman, Holly Hunter, and Charles Durning. Set in 1937 rural Mississippi during the Great Depression, the film's story is a modern satire loosely...
). The soundtrack included several songs from from the Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane
Jefferson Airplane was an American rock band formed in San Francisco in 1965. A pioneer of the psychedelic rock movement, Jefferson Airplane was the first band from the San Francisco scene to achieve mainstream commercial and critical success....
album Surrealistic Pillow
Surrealistic Pillow
Surrealistic Pillow is the second album by American psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, released in February 1967.Original drummer Alexander 'Skip' Spence had left the band in mid-1966, replaced by a jazz drummer from Los Angeles, Spencer Dryden, a nephew of Charlie Chaplin. New lead vocalist...
, including "Somebody to Love
Somebody to Love (Jefferson Airplane song)
"Somebody to Love" is a rock song that was written by Darby Slick and originally recorded by 1960s folk rock band The Great Society and later by the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane...
," "Today
Today (Jefferson Airplane song)
"Today" is a folk rock ballad written by Marty Balin and Paul Kantner from the band Jefferson Airplane. It first appeared on their breakthrough album, Surrealistic Pillow, with a live version later appearing on the expanded rerelease of Bless Its Pointed Little Head. Marty Balin said, "I wrote it...
," "Comin' Back to Me
Comin' Back to Me
"Comin' Back to Me" is a folk rock song by the band Jefferson Airplane. It was written by Marty Balin. The song appeared on Jefferson Airplane's second album, Surrealistic Pillow...
," and "3/5 of a Mile in 10 Seconds." The soundtrack also featured "Machine Gun" from Jimi Hendrix
Jimi Hendrix
James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix was an American guitarist and singer-songwriter...
's live album Band of Gypsys
Band of Gypsys
Band of Gypsys was a blues rock band led by Jimi Hendrix and backed by Billy Cox and Buddy Miles. Hendrix formed the band after the dissolution of The Jimi Hendrix Experience. Band of Gypsys is also the band's eponymous live album recorded on two separate nights, 31 December 1969 and 1 January...
, and some pieces of Yiddish music including Mark Warshawsky
Mark Warshawsky
Mark Markovich Warshavsky was a Yiddish-speaking folk poet and composer from the Russian Empire.He graduated from the Law school of Kiev University and practiced law in Kiev. By the influence of Abraham Goldfaden Warshawsky started to write songs and sing them in his circle of friends accompanied...
's "Dem Milner's Treren" performed by Sidor Belarsky
Sidor Belarsky
Sidor Belarsky, born Isidor Livshitz , was a Ukrainian-American singer born to a Jewish family in Kryzhopol, Ukraine....
.
Release
The film had a limited releaseLimited release
Limited release is a term in the American motion picture industry for a motion picture that is playing in a select few theaters across the country ....
on October 2, 2009, in the United States. It premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
The Toronto International Film Festival is a publicly-attended film festival held each September in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. In 2010, 339 films from 59 countries were screened at 32 screens in downtown Toronto venues...
on September 12, 2009.
A Serious Man was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
and Blu-ray
Blu-ray Disc
Blu-ray Disc is an optical disc storage medium designed to supersede the DVD format. The plastic disc is 120 mm in diameter and 1.2 mm thick, the same size as DVDs and CDs. Blu-ray Discs contain 25 GB per layer, with dual layer discs being the norm for feature-length video discs...
in North America on February 9, 2010.
Box office performance
| Film | Release date | Box office revenue | Box office ranking | Budget | Reference | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| United States | United States | International | Worldwide | All time United States | All time worldwide | |||
| A Serious Man | October 2009 | $9,228,768 | $22,201,566 | $31,430,334 | #3,818 | Unknown | $7,000,000 | |
As of February 10, 2010, it has had worldwide gross earnings of $31,312,437 It has received mostly positive reviews from critics, with an aggregate score of 89% from Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
, based on 194 reviews. Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
, of the Chicago Sun-Times
Chicago Sun-Times
The Chicago Sun-Times is an American daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois. It is the flagship paper of the Sun-Times Media Group.-History:The Chicago Sun-Times is the oldest continuously published daily newspaper in the city...
, rated the film four out of four stars, feeling that it "bears every mark of a labor of love," and Variety
Variety (magazine)
Variety is an American weekly entertainment-trade magazine founded in New York City, New York, in 1905 by Sime Silverman. With the rise of the importance of the motion-picture industry, Daily Variety, a daily edition based in Los Angeles, California, was founded by Silverman in 1933. In 1998, the...
s Todd McCarthy commented that "the Coens' filmmaking skills are sharply attentive," and that A Serious Man is "the kind of picture you get to make after you've won an Oscar". Claudia Puig of USA Today
USA Today
USA Today is a national American daily newspaper published by the Gannett Company. It was founded by Al Neuharth. The newspaper vies with The Wall Street Journal for the position of having the widest circulation of any newspaper in the United States, something it previously held since 2003...
writes, "A Serious Man is a wonderfully odd, bleakly comic and thoroughly engrossing film. Underlying the grim humor are serious questions about faith, family, mortality and misfortune." Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
critic Richard Corliss
Richard Corliss
Richard Nelson Corliss is a writer for Time magazine who focuses on movies, with the occasional article on music or sports. Corliss is the former editor-in-chief of Film Comment...
describes it as "disquieting" and "haunting." Christy Lemire
Christy Lemire
Christy Lemire is the film critic for The Associated Press and co-host of Ebert Presents at the Movies with Ignatiy Vishnevetsky. She also co-hosts the weekly online movie review show, What The Flick?!....
called it "the Coens' most thoughtful and personal film" and gave it three-and-a-half stars out of four.
Critical reception
| Film | Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance... |
Metacritic Metacritic Metacritic.com is a website that collates reviews of music albums, games, movies, TV shows and DVDs. For each product, a numerical score from each review is obtained and the total is averaged. An excerpt of each review is provided along with a hyperlink to the source. Three colour codes of Green,... |
Entertainment Weekly Entertainment Weekly Entertainment Weekly is an American magazine, published by the Time division of Time Warner, that covers film, television, music, broadway theatre, books and popular culture... |
||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| All Critics | Top Critics | Audience | |||
| A Serious Man | 89% (194 reviews) | 86% (36 reviews) | 64% (54,396 reviews) | 79/100 (35 reviews) | A- |
The St. Petersburg Times
St. Petersburg Times
The St. Petersburg Times is a United States newspaper. It is one of two major publications serving the Tampa Bay Area, the other being The Tampa Tribune, which the Times tops in both circulation and readership. Based in St...
s Steve Persall wrote that the main character would remind Bible readers of the Book of Job despite some important differences. The Coens themselves have allowed that, while there may be allusions to Job, the "germ" of the story was a rabbi from their adolescence, a "mysterious figure" who had a private conversation with each student at the conclusion of their religious education. The Wall Street Journals Joe Morgenstern
Joe Morgenstern
Joe Morgenstern is a Pulitzer Prize-winning film critic for The Wall Street Journal.-Career:Morgenstern graduated from Lehigh University in 1953. His first journalism experience was as news clerk at the New York Times...
disliked what he saw as misanthropy
Misanthropy
Misanthropy is generalized dislike, distrust, disgust, contempt or hatred of the human species or human nature. A misanthrope, or misanthropist is someone who holds such views or feelings...
in the film, saying that "...their caricatures range from dislikable through despicable, with not a smidgeon of humanity to redeem them." David Denby
David Denby (film critic)
David Denby is an American journalist, best known as a film critic for The New Yorker magazine.-Background and education:Denby grew up in New York City. He received a B.A...
from The New Yorker
The New Yorker
The New Yorker is an American magazine of reportage, commentary, criticism, essays, fiction, satire, cartoons and poetry published by Condé Nast...
enjoyed the look and feel of the film, but found fault with the script and characterization: "A Serious Man, like Burn After Reading
Burn After Reading
Burn After Reading is a 2008 black comedy film written, produced, and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. The film stars George Clooney, John Malkovich, Frances McDormand, Tilda Swinton, and Brad Pitt. It was released in the United States on September 12, 2008, and it was released on October 17, 2008...
, is in their bleak, black, belittling mode, and it's hell to sit through... As a piece of movie-making craft, A Serious Man is fascinating; in every other way, it's intolerable."
Awards
Stuhlbarg was awarded the Chaplin Virtuoso Award at the Santa Barbara International Film FestivalSanta Barbara International Film Festival
The Santa Barbara International Film Festival is a film festival and non-profit organization, established in 1985, that showcases independent American and international films. The SBIFF line-up includes 20 world premieres and 11 U.S. premieres, with newly expanded 11-day festival...
and nominated for Best Actor in the 67th Annual Golden Globe Award
Golden Globe Award
The Golden Globe Award is an accolade bestowed by the 93 members of the Hollywood Foreign Press Association recognizing excellence in film and television, both domestic and foreign...
s. Stuhlbarg, Kind, Melamed and Lennick were nominated for a Gotham Award for Best Performance by an Ensemble Cast
Ensemble cast
An ensemble cast is made up of cast members in which the principal actors and performers are assigned roughly equal amounts of importance and screen time in a dramatic production. This kind of casting became more popular in television series because it allows flexibility for writers to focus on...
. Ethan Coen, Joel Coen, casting directors Ellen Chenoweth and Rachel Tenner, along with actors Kind, Lennick, Melamed, Stuhlbarg, Wolff and McManus were awarded the Robert Altman Spirit Award by Film Independent for Excellence in Collaborative Cinematic Achievement by Directors, Casting Directors and an Ensemble Cast. Deakins received the Best Cinematography awards at both the 2009 Hollywood Awards and the 2009 San Francisco Film Critics Circle Awards, as well as the Nikola Tesla Award at the Satellite Awards and the Best Cinematography award at the Independent Spirit Awards
Independent Spirit Awards
The Independent Spirit Awards , founded in 1984, are awards dedicated to independent filmmakers. Winners were typically presented with acrylic glass pyramids containing suspended shoestrings representing the paltry budgets of independent films. In 1986, the event was renamed the Independent Spirit...
. A Serious Man was nominated for an MPSE Golden Reel Award for Best Sound Editing: Dialogue and ADR in a Feature Film.
The Coen brothers were awarded Best Original Screenplay at the 2009 National Board of Review Awards and Best Original Screenplay from the National Society of Film Critics Awards 2009
National Society of Film Critics Awards 2009
The 44th National Society of Film Critics Awards, given on 3 January 2010, honored the best filmmaking of 2009.-Best Picture::1. The Hurt Locker2. Summer Hours 3. Inglourious Basterds-Best Director::...
, and have been nominated for a Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay
Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay
The Writers Guild of America Award for Best Original Screenplay is one of the three film writing awards given by the Writers Guild of America Award....
and the BAFTA for Best Original Screenplay. A Serious Man was nominated for Best Picture and Best Original Screenplay in the Broadcast Film Critics Association
Broadcast Film Critics Association
The Broadcast Film Critics Association is the largest film critics organization in the United States and Canada , representing approximately 250 television, radio and online critics....
's 15th Annual Critics' Choice Awards, and by the Boston Society of Film Critics
Boston Society of Film Critics
The Boston Society of Film Critics is an organization of film reviewers from Boston, Massachusetts, United States, based publications.The BSFC was formed in 1981 to make "Boston's unique critical perspective heard on a national and international level by awarding commendations to the best of the...
, Best Picture by the Chicago Film Critics Association
Chicago Film Critics Association
The Chicago Film Critics Association is an American film critic association.-Members:Current members include:*Sarah Knight Adamson*Zbigniew Banas*Shelley Cameron*Dave Canfield*Vittorio Carli*Erik Childress*Camerin Courtney*Bonnie DeShong...
. The film was listed as one of the ten best films of 2009 by the National Board of Review of Motion Pictures
National Board of Review of Motion Pictures
The National Board of Review of Motion Pictures was founded in 1909 in New York City, just 13 years after the birth of cinema, to protest New York City Mayor George B. McClellan, Jr.'s revocation of moving-picture exhibition licenses on Christmas Eve 1908. The mayor believed that the new medium...
, the American Film Institute
American Film Institute
The American Film Institute is an independent non-profit organization created by the National Endowment for the Arts, which was established in 1967 when President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act...
, the Satellite Awards and the Southeastern Film Critics Association Awards
Southeastern Film Critics Association
The Southeastern Film Critics Association is an organization of film reviewers from publications based in the Southeastern United States....
.
A Serious Man was nominated for Best Original Screenplay (Joel Coen and Ethan Coen) and Best Picture
Academy Award for Best Picture
The Academy Award for Best Picture is one of the Academy Awards of Merit presented annually by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to artists working in the motion picture industry. The Best Picture category is the only category in which every member of the Academy is eligible not only...
at the 82nd Academy Awards
82nd Academy Awards
The 82nd Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences , honored the best films of 2009 and took place March 7, 2010, at the Kodak Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles beginning at 5:30 p.m. PST / 8:30 p.m. EST. The ceremony was scheduled well after...
. BBC News
BBC News
BBC News is the department of the British Broadcasting Corporation responsible for the gathering and broadcasting of news and current affairs. The department is the world's largest broadcast news organisation and generates about 120 hours of radio and television output each day, as well as online...
called it "one of the less talked about nominees" for Best Picture; they also noted that lead actor Stuhlbarg received his invitation to the ceremony at the last minute.