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Release
Date: 20 November 2009
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Stars :
Michael Stuhlbarg, Richard Kind, Simon Helberg
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Director:
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
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Production
Company: Focus Features/ Working Title
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Screenplay:
Joel Coen and Ethan Coen
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Running
Time:
106 Mins
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Synopsis
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Set in the Mid-West in the 60’s, “A Serious Man” is the story of Jewish man Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) and his dysfunctional family. A Professor at a university, his life goes into freefall when his wife threatens to leave him and his career is put in jeopardy by a series of anonymous letters accusing him of unspecified misdemeanours . |
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Verdict
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After the Oscar-winning success of “No Country for old men” and the box-office success of “Burn After Reading”, the Coens have decided to indulge themselves with this idiosyncratic mess of a movie. With a no name cast and a mind-numbing series of disasters befalling the “hero” of the film, the screenplay is made up of a series of woeful vignettes and transgressions which never add up to anything substantial. The 60’s period setting is well evoked, but the subject matter is so personal to the film-makers that it plays like a 106 minute in-joke (where all Gentiles are excluded from the references) Absurd, frustrating and ultimately painful to watch, this film marks the nadir in the Coen brothers canon and is instantly forgettable. |
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