"A Serious Man" Ponders "Why Me?"

[deutsey]

http://www.midshorelife.com/content/serious-man-ponders

SNIP

A Serious Man seems to be the filmmakers’ postmodern version of the Book of Job. This biblical tale focuses on a good and faithful man named Job who loses everything when God allows Satan to test his faith. After enduring a series of life-shattering catastrophes, Job (who is far from being patient, by the way) angrily wants answers to the age-old question posed by all those who suffer unjustly: “Why me?”

The answer God gives Job from within a massive whirlwind, however, doesn’t really explain the “why” at all. Instead God essentially responds that Job’s limited human mind can never fathom the eternal magnitude of divine reasoning. This insight humbles Job, giving him a consoling wisdom that transcends intellectual understanding. God goes on to restore everything Job had lost, and the story has a relatively happy ending.

The Coen Brothers are not as generous with their film’s protagonist, Larry Gopnik, a decent (yet somewhat oblivious and passive) man. Like Job, Gopnik’s relatively placid life is abruptly turned upside down by a series of arbitrary misfortunes.

SNIP

[Jim__]

1. Sounds like an interesting film.

I'll try to watch it. Thanks for posting.

[rd_kent]

2. Nice! I love Cohen Brothers movies!

[Silent3]

3. delete

(Accidentally attached response to wrong previous post.)

[Silent3]

4. "God goes on to restore everything Job had lost"

This is one of the things that has always bothered me about the story of Job. All of Job's children are killed off, and God somehow makes up for this by giving him ten more to replace the dead ones.

This makes everything happy again? Interchangeable children? And the previous ten children are just pawns in this little game?

[deutsey]

5. That's why I said "relatively happy"

I could have explored the more ambiguous aspects of Job's story at length (the nature of Satan, the death of Job's children, etc.), but I wanted to remain focused on my major theme.