The Coen Brothers seem to be known for their gripping dark dramas like No Country for Old Men, Fargo, and Miller’s Crossing, but comedy has been very much a part of their careers too, perhaps more so, making the case that the Coens know comedy. A bold statement many won’t get or accept, but much like Burn After Reading and O Brother, Where Art Thou?, their latest film-A Serious Man-is so rich in the dark comedy, the laughs come often.

Even in their lesser films, one can say their top directors. Each film is expertly done, and here with A Serious Man, they’re in prime form. The way they filmed the retro 1960s look, staging of scenes, and more importantly, for the comedic aspects, the set up, delivery, and punch-line for the laughs, prove that they are one of the few directors working, that are consistently putting out strong films, year after year. A new Coen Brothers film every year? Works for me.

Unlike their other comedy (and let’s be honest, that their comedy is far different than what most would broadly categorize comedy as) films, A Serious Man is far more ambiguous, yet still highly enjoyable. Most won’t get everything in the film, and I won’t blame them. This much is certain: Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is a happy middle class Jewish family man, with a nice career as a college professor, until one day everything starts to unravel. I will say the film feels like it’s an inside joke for the Coens and their fellow Jewish friends, since there’s plenty of talk and happenings that deal with Jewish religious practices, and while a strict knowledge isn’t needed to enjoy the film, it might help reveal some of the more ambiguous ideas they have. I will say that maybe only the Coens can make a film like this, something that feels like their most mature picture, but despite that damn ambiguous word, second by second, A Serious Man is highly entertaining.

At times, A Serious Man feels like a religious fable as told by the Coens, in that Coen Brothers way of telling things. In some interviews, they gleefully remarked on how much fun they had coming up with more bad things for their character of Larry Gopnik to go through, and an acute viewer will get a sense that maybe, if anything, A Serious Man is a modern retelling of the Old Testament story of the Job, and no matter how much pain and suffering Job goes through from God, he still has undying faith for Him. That’s easy to see. Larry is constantly asking for rabbi’s help and advice, and no matter how much crap he goes through, like a wife planning a divorce, trouble making brother who lives on his couch, work issues with a student trying to pay him off for a better grade, racist hick neighbor, he never repents and always beliefs. God is unseen, but you make the case God in A Serious Man is the Coen Brothers and of course, Job is Larry. How much more can Larry take? At the end, the Coens let it all out on him, and we will never know.

Even more interesting, is the pre-title Yiddish vampire fable. How does it tie into the happenings of Larry, I don’t really know, but that’s the fun outside of the humor, albeit dark humor, of A Serious Man. The Coens are on a hot streak, no doubt about that, and while some really won’t want to wrestle with what they’re doing here, that’s fine, because the rest of us will enjoy their stellar collection of characters and welcome Larry Gopnik into their stable of memorable characters. Michael Stuhlbarg, a relatively unknown stage actor, who plays Larry, might have just turned in one of the best male lead performances in 2009.

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Tags: A Serious Man, burn after reading, coen brothers, Michael Stuhlbarg, no country for old men