The Coen Brothers’ (Fargo, No Country for Old Men) signature sardonic humor and idiosyncratic cinematic imagination take on questions of faith, familial responsibility, delinquent behavior, science, morality, and Judaism in their hotly awaited new film, A Serious Man. Set in a suburban Midwestern town during the late ‘60s, it’s the story of Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a suburban Jewish physics professor who is plagued with a dysfunctional family, a vindictive neighbor, and a grade-grubbing foreign exchange student who is threatening his long-nurtured chance for tenure. Wracked with existential questions and struggling for equilibrium, he turns to three rabbis for help. Can anyone help him cope with his afflictions and become a righteous person—a mensch—a serious man? “A tart, brilliantly acted fable of life’s little cosmic difficulties…with a script rich in verbal wit.” (Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune)
The Ragtag Cinema located in downtown Columbia is showing the film “A Serious Man”. Go the Ragtag’s website at www.ragtagfilm.com for dates and showtimes.