From Joel and Ethan Coen comes A Serious Man, a darkly comic, deeply unsettling exploration of fate, faith, and the cosmic cruelty of everyday life. With their trademark mix of absurdity and despair, the Coens craft a story that feels both timeless and brutally modern — a tale of a man whose world crumbles faster than he can piece it together.

The Plot

Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is a mild-mannered physics professor in 1967 Minnesota. His life looks ordinary on the surface — a family, a steady job, and a suburban home. But underneath, everything is falling apart.

His wife demands a divorce, his kids are indifferent or troublesome, his academic career teeters on collapse, and his neighbors make his life miserable. Searching for guidance, Larry seeks advice from rabbis, hoping for wisdom. Instead, he finds cryptic parables, dead ends, and more confusion.

As his misfortunes pile up, the central question emerges: Is there meaning in suffering, or is the universe indifferent to his pain?

Why It’s More Than Just a Midlife Crisis Movie

• Existential comedy with bite – The Coens use humor not to soften the blow, but to deepen the sting of life’s absurdity.

• Michael Stuhlbarg’s breakout – His nuanced performance captures a man trapped between rational thought and spiritual despair.

• Universal themes – Even though it’s rooted in Jewish culture and 1960s suburbia, the questions it asks—about justice, meaning, and chaos—speak to everyone.

• The Coens at their purest – If No Country for Old Men was about fate and violence, A Serious Man is about fate and futility.