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As our protagonist solemnly tells the rabbi, "I've had quite a bit of 'tsuris' lately."
The translation, available in the extras under the Hebrew and Yiddish for Goys, is "aggravating trouble."
For Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlberg), a physics professor in 1967, it's coming from every direction. His wife wants a "get" (divorce) so she can run off with an older gentleman. His boss keeps him on pins and needles about his tenure. His daughter is precocious and combative, and his pothead son, studying for Bar Mitzvah, doesn't hesitate to call him at the most inopportune times to tell him that " 'F Troop' is fuzzy" on the TV.
"A Serious Man" is the most Jewish film yet from Joel and Ethan Coen, rebounding from "Burn After Reading" with another Oscar-nominated black comedy. They re-create late-'60s life right down to the spare landscaping, old cars and TV antennas in a fledgling Minneapolis suburb.
Gopnik is their Job, trying to survive work and family pressures, while toying with a bribe that could be his moral undoing. He's hoping a meeting with the rabbi will set things straight, but all he gets are runarounds and a dizzying abstraction. It's his son who gets the meeting with the old sage, Rabbi Marshak, and the results are, well, like an acid trip.
As with so many of their films, the Coens delight in messing with your head, while moving their woeful lead character like a pawn. Newcomer Stuhlberg is a perfect schlemiel, all nervous hilarity and paranoia, especially in contrast to Fred Melamed as the most condescending home-wrecker you'll ever meet, not to mention the family of deer-hunting "goyim" next door. The ending is one of their finest cliffhangers.
The extras are a nice addition, with the Yiddish guide and the Coens showing how they warped a neighborhood back to '67.
-- Scott Mervis, Post-Gazette Weekend Mag editor
The real star of this comedy is a five-star resort in Bora Bora doubling as the main backdrop. It's breathtaking, although it cannot make up for a movie that seemed designed to be the perfect date-night choice for married couples in their 30s but goes astray.
Peter Billingsley, a producer whose acting credits include Ralphie in "A Christmas Story," makes the leap from producing to directing with this story about four couples who leave the snowy Midwest for a week at a remote resort.
Written by Vince Vaughn, Jon Favreau and Dana Fox, "Couples Retreat" is designed to represent various phases of relationships and contentment. Most of the laughs come courtesy of Vaughn, who does his patented fast-talking patter, while Jason Bateman's character oozes sincerity and preparation, down to his PowerPoint presentations and adherence to rules. Mr. Favreau gets the raunchiest moments, and Faizon Love has to drop trou and try to placate a young girlfriend.
The movie twists, turns and tarries during its 107 minutes, which feels like two hours. The group of eight seems believable as longtime friends who share a history. Its message about the joys and challenges of marriage is nicely old-fashioned but feels calculated to please a target audience that's now been tossed to the sharks and the teens drawn by the chum of the PG-13 rating.
The extras include alternate ending, deleted scenes, commentary and a featurette on filming in Bora Bora.
-- Post-Gazette
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