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MOVIES
Joyce: The wife,well played by Sari Lennick, has found love with a pompous colleague who has greater promise than Larry, and she wants to give him a try. Lennick plays her to her most irritating best. Most will want to smack her.
Rico: Larry (Michael Stuhlbarg) is just beset with problems. In addition to the above mentioned situation, his kids and his brother seem to be just plain no good.
Joyce: The brother, played by Richard Kind, is particularly troublesome. He appears to be completely dysfunctional and eccentric and may be helping to sabotage Larry's chances for tenure, and is pretty much nothing more than a helpless mooch sleeping on Larry's couch.
Rico: It seems that he just wants to be a regular guy, and everyone and everything is conspiring against him. This is rather dark humor.
The characters are the meat of the film.
Joyce: Let's face it, Larry is a well meaning wimp. Stuhlbarg is wonderful as Larry, even if we do want to shake him sometimes.
The characters are all very well acted, including Adam Arkin as one of the unhelpful Rabbi's Larry asks for advice. Arkin and Kind are the only familiar actors in the whole film.
Rico: It's a film largely centered around Jewish culture at that time, and may be too much an "in joke" for the larger audience.
Larry's life is filled with several other characters who, it seems only Joel and Ethan Coen can bring to the screen.
Joyce: I'm afraid this was too dark, unfunny (except for a few scenes) and slow paced for my taste. Oh well, the Coen's can't win 'em all.
Joyce: **1/2
Rico: ***1/2
Now Playing at the Drexel...
Film: A Serious Man
By: Ethan Coen, Joel Coen
Cast Includes: Michael Stuhlbarg, Fred Melamed, Richard Kind, Aaron Wolf, Sari Wagner, Jessica McManus, Adam Arkin
Genre: Comedy
Running Time: 1:45
Rated: R for language, some sexuality/nudity and brief violence
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