A Serious Man

When it comes to the Coen brothers' films, it is either love or hate with me. A Serious Man leaned toward the latter with me. I just didn't care about any of the characters. I didn't feel any sympathy for any of them. They either annoyed me, confused me, or made me grimace. The movie was well done, to be sure, but I just didn't gain anything from it. It didn't seem to have a message except for... don't go looking to your faith for answers because you will only get more muddled. I'm told it is a modern day adaptation of the story of Job, God testing him by putting him through all this crap. I don't care what it's an adaptation of, it still just... didn't make sense to me. It's always the same: Raising Arizona, hated it (although I tend to hate anything with Nicolas Cage); Fargo, loved it; O, Brother, Where Art Thou?, hated it; No Country For Old Men, loved it. And so it goes. It was just my turn to hate one of their movies, I suppose. There's no chance of it winning best picture. It was too quiet of a film. I really don't think it will swipe Original Screenplay, either. I think that will go to either The Hurt Locker or Inglourious Basterds. So... it may have been nominated, and to be sure, the Coen Brothers are sophisticated film makers, but overall, I couldn't appreciate that movie. The most I have to say for it is it got a good grasp of the time period and the mentality of people living in the early 70's. That is all.