"Did I mention that the ending is perfect? Frustratingly perfect."

I remember watching Donald Duck cartoons as a kid and feeling a kind of despair that the world could heap such an unrelenting barrage of tragicomedy and humiliation on a duck. 'A Serious Man' is kind of like that, but I'm old enough to laugh knowingly now while I cringe. This story concerns Larry Gopnik, a Midwestern Jewish man struggling through the 1960s and what would appear to be some sort of ancient family curse. His son gets chased home each day by the drug dealer he owes $20 to, his daughter seemingly does nothing but wash her hair, his brother lives on the couch and constantly holes himself up in the bathroom draining a cyst, and his wife wants him to be "an adult" about the fact that she is suddenly leaving him for a man they've both known for 15 years. Much of this is shot with the same claustrophobic, oppressive intensity of 'Barton Fink,' making it both uncomfortable to watch and impossible not to keep watching.

...This may not be the most accessible Coen Brothers film, but anyone who has ever wondered if there's a God, and whether He or She has a sick sense of humor, should enjoy this film. Did I mention that the ending is perfect? Frustratingly perfect.  -Aimee