A Serious Man (2009)

The title is almost off-putting: “A Serious Man.” It sounds terribly depressing, right? But this dark, tiny thinker of a comedy is the Coen Brothers’ razor sharp version of Monty Python’s “The Meaning of Life.”

Here a 1967 Midwest Jewish physics professor named Larry Gopnick (Michael Stuhlbarg) stands in the middle of life’s highway as misfortunes run him down one truck after another. Larry’s wife wants a divorce so she can marry a widower named Sy, who in turn wants to be Larry’s BFF. Larry’s son is smoking pot and considers not getting a clear picture for “F Troop” an emergency. Larry’s freak brother is gambling and dabbling in illegal sex. Larry is up for tenure. The hits keep coming, and as our hero cracks, the Coens ask “What does it all mean?” and “What is God’s will? Does He even have a will?”

Don’t expect safe answers from the men who gave us “Fargo” and “No Country for Old Men.” (One rabbi insists life’s answers are in the parking lot. Another flatly says there are none. Both scenes are priceless.) An actor not known in Hollywood circles, Stuhlbarg is brilliant in the lead role.

The final scenes are jaw-dropping cruel stunts that only the Coens can get away with. They hit the viewer like an unforgiving truck. A-