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Parents' Guide to

A Serious Man

By James Rocchi, Common Sense Media Reviewer

age 17+

Brilliant but bleak comedy for mature Coen brothers fans.

Movie R 2009 105 minutes
A Serious Man Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

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age 15+

Based on 9 parent reviews

doctora
doctora Parent of 5-year-old
May 29, 2022
age 17+

Have a teen super into abstraction and life's existential questions...well do I have a film for you!

Watched the whole film before realizing it was a Coen brothers film. That solved the "how did this get made?" question. I am not Jewish, but the specificity in which this film features mid-Western Jewish US American life feels spot on. The particulars, the details, the carefully constructed scenes of a presumed life falling apart all reverberate to a cookie cutter existence that has been existentialist fodder for many a pained suburbanite. the acting is all tone perfect, precise, and engaging. The film takes the line, "What's going on?!" and squeezes all of the philosophical juice out of it.
KKH
KKH Adult
July 25, 2020
age 17+

It’s for you if you like nonsense

Entertaining, but unsatisfying as far as movies go. It was about a series of unfortunate events and that’s it. There was no ending to this movie, no moral of the story, no kind of closure. Waste of time really.
See all 9 parent reviews

What's the Story?

In 1967 Minnesota, husband/father/physics professor Larry Gopnick (Michael Stuhlbarg) is dealing with a series of calamities -- his wife wants a divorce, his children are indifferent, a student is trying to bribe him for a better grade, and he's waiting to hear whether he'll receive academic tenure. As Larry tries to deal with these problems (and his son prepares for his bar mitzvah while dodging the pot dealer he owes money to), all the characters ask: What does God want from me? And what does he want for me?

Is It Any Good?

Our review:
Parents say (9 ):
Kids say (8 ):

A Serious Man seems designed to baffle, but it actually lingers long after its small, sly jokes and plot complications finish. It's a particularly thin slice-of-life look that peers at a '60s Midwestern Jewish family as if through a microscope. Ethan and Joel Coen have always been interested in morality as a theme, and A Serious Man is no exception, with Larry (played by stage actor Stuhlbarg in an excellent performance) dealing with the large and small indignities of life while looking to religion for answers, even though he fails to find them.

Don't go to A Serious Man expecting the big laughs and quotable lines of, say, The Big Lebowski; this movie is, while funny, a much more serious work. The cinematography by longtime Coen collaborator Roger Deakins is superb, and the entire cast does excellent work. A Serious Man may look like a finely observed, small-scale work, but the questions it asks will linger with you long after its haunting final image.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

  • Families can talk about the film's central question: Why do bad things happen to good people? Do our actions have consequences?

  • The film also offers great opportunities for discussion of the natureof religious belief. What questions does the movie raise about faith? Does it provide any answers?

  • What does this movie have in common thematically with the Coen brothers' other movies? What do their films say about the importance of morality and ethics in a world that seems to respect neither?

Movie Details

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