A Serious Man

** – It seems to me that ever since “O Brother, Where Art Thou?” the Coen Brothers have decided to completely drop any attempt to create films that have a narrative that is easily followed from start to finish. In fact, every movie (which seem to come out pretty much yearly now) that they have been responsible for has had a number of great moments but next to no actual plot. This latest effort from them epitomizes this trend. There are a few really enjoyable bits in it, but overall “A Serious Man” is rather dull and occasionally incomprehensible. This is definitely their Jew-iest outing, and not being a Jew myself (a belief system that I find reprehensible, by the way), and also not having grown up in the 60’s, I find most of this pretty hard to watch. Do real-life followers of Judaism really act like the people in this movie? My goodness, I hope not. All the characters are horrible people in essence, who follow superstitious traditions above all else. I find that really annoying, and one of the predominant reasons (along with “Dancing with the Stars”) for the destruction of society. Anyway, this movie isn’t too good.