A Serious Man Screening

A Serious Man is a Cohen Brothers film based on the biblical book of Job. The brothers use nonsensical, unrelated events to illustrate a theme that is largely left up to interpretation of the viewer.

The first 15 minutes of the movie is somewhat unrelated to the second part of the film. In the discussion following the screening at the Christian Study Center, it was noted that this section of the film helped to establish a sense of uncertainty. Though few could put into exact words how the first part of the film directly tied to the rest of the movie, many recognized it as a compelling element in the open-ended plot. Some drew note to the fact that the woman in the opening scene seemed to emphasize their cursedness.

There were many Biblical allusions in the film which included references to Bathsheba and the book of Job. The relation to the Biblical book of Job is interesting because the Cohen Brothers take the overall structure of the Book of Job but add their own twist to it. In A Serious Man, there are three Rabbis that the main character goes into see. Two of the Rabbis give Larry nonsensical or naïve advice about his life crumbling around him. The last rabbi does not even see Larry. Instead, Larry goes to three outside friends for council. It was debated who exactly these friends were in the film. My interpretation was that the three friends were the lawyer, the neighbor, and perhaps the tenure worker at his office.

A final topic of discussion worth mentioning that took place at the Christian Study Center revolved around the character of Marshak, the final rabbi. Marshak only speaks to the bar-mitzvah boys and is very old. His office, when we finally enter it, seems to resemble a Holy of Holies. In the office, there are bugs in jars, religious paintings, and other mysterious objects. Marshak seems to embody a divine like character, but as a personified divine character, Marshak is soft-spoken and does not seem to be directly connected. However, getting to Marshak is very much a focal point for the plot despite Marshak as a character’s seeming disconnectedness.

Just as an interesting aside, the fact that the Jewish teacher could not open the door to the synagogue when the tornado is about to hit may symbolize the Cohens’ belief that religion is inept.