My take on A Serious Man is that it's the Coen brothers doing their version of slapstick. In actual slapstick routines, and also in many old cartoons such as Bugs Bunny, Roadrunner, and others from the 50s and 60s (and earlier), some of the characters continually get "hurt" physically, and it's funny. Ditto for A Serious Man, but the hurt is emotional rather than physical. So we are not supposed to take A Serious Man seriously.
Just as some people don't care for the pratfalls and the Three Stooges' style physical comedy, some people don't care for and don't get the comedy in A Serious Man. Pat Calkins, my best friend during junior high, watched part of the movie with me recently, and when the alleged dybbuk is stabbed by Dora, he just sort of didn't get it, wondering out loud by saying something like, "She stabbed him after he helped them?" Well, you really do have to pay attention, and have missed the essentials of that part of the movie if you don't get the reason she stabs him. And you're going to be lost to the humor of the rest of the movie if you don't find the dybbuk?'s response to his stabbing to be funny.
The stabbing in fact is the one instance where there is a physical slapstick moment. Maybe that's why the Coens refer to the opening sequence as being like the cartoon that preceded the feature presentation back when they (and I) were kids. Well, okay, the car wreck is physical humor. And Michael Stuhlbarg's body language--enhanced by 1967-era pants and shirt--and facial expressions are also excellent physical comedy.
The stabbing in fact is the one instance where there is a physical slapstick moment. Maybe that's why the Coens refer to the opening sequence as being like the cartoon that preceded the feature presentation back when they (and I) were kids. Well, okay, the car wreck is physical humor. And Michael Stuhlbarg's body language--enhanced by 1967-era pants and shirt--and facial expressions are also excellent physical comedy.
So, anyway, I let Pat off the hook less than halfway through the movie. He wanted action, and actually asked me if someone was going to get killed--he needed to anticipate some serious physical movie violence in order to keep up his interest. The movie he had on his mind was Lord of War. That was the movie he wanted me to watch, and I did check it out from the library the next day. And I like it, unlike him and his low opinion of, or at least lack of interest in, A Serious Man.
During Robert Altman's acceptance speech for his Lifetime Achievment Oscar, he mentioned that he wasn't as interested in stories as he was in conversations. You gotta be interested in conversations to care anything about A Serious Man, because that's what drives the action, and mostly is the action, in the movie. It's Coen bros' intellectual slapstick. It's a cartoon made with real actors.
Like some cartoons--Bugs Bunny and Roadrunner come to mind--A Serious Man has lessons to be learned. If you think just because someone does you a favor, helps you in some way, like helping you replace the fallen-off wheel of your cart in the snow, that he is your friend or that he is a good person, well, you better be careful. He could be the equivalent of a dybbuk. He could be pure evil.
Or if you think you're actually in good health because your cigarette-smoking doctor tells you so, but your chest x-rays have not been developed yet, well, you're going to possibly find the "truth" to be a lie. (The x-ray room, with its door ajar, is shown behind Larry when Dr. Shapiro gives him his supposed clean bill of health.)
And that's only for starters.
