In “A Serious Man”, college professor; Larry Gopnik thinks everything in his life is going fine, when all of a sudden his world starts falling apart. His wife wants a divorce, he has to deal with his obviously anti-Semitic neighbor (who I believe is more of a symbol that represents intolerance for all things NOT 100% American during the 1960’s), he’s kicked out of his house, one of his failing students tries to bribe and/or frame him after receiving a failing grade, his brother has no place to stay, all while his son’s bar mitzvah is right around the corner. Just like almost all of the other Coen movies, there’s plenty of symbolism and an open ending. In A Serious Man’s case, the open end in sight doesn’t look all that good. Aside from the out of nowhere, unexpected release of this film, it got a lot of attention, because weren’t any “stars” in it. Don’t let the cast of pretty much “unknowns”, with the exceptions of Adam Arkin (where the hell has he been?) and two cameo’s from Michael Lerner & Steven Park, sway you from checking this film out. All the actors are great, unlike a lot of the ”unknowns” & non professionals in recent movies like; “Bubble”, “Paranoid Park” or “Elephant” (which are all good movies, but sometimes non-professional actors can be kinda distracting with their dry/un-polished delivery). Also, remember this is a Coen brother’s movie, so I’m sure it’ll be nominated for a million awards and get a bunch of over hyped acclaim just because… I mean, what coen brothers movie hasn’t? Plus, ANYTHING that follows up “Burn After Reading” would almost look like a masterpiece. But rest assured, with all that stuff aside, this movie is still really good. Fans of “Barton Fink” and “The Man Who Wasn’t There” will enjoy this especially.