The defence The Sentimental Softie
“Sincerity is not manipulation.”
The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.
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A Serious Man
Comedy · Drama · 2009
It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous acquaintances Sy Ableman.
Movie details
A Serious Man
“Accept mystery.”
2009 Comedy · Drama 1h 46m
Critical arithmetic
The consensus, allegedly.
Scores change. Arguments endure.
IMDb
7.0 / 10
155.3K votes
Rotten Tomatoes
89 %
Tomatometer
Metacritic
88 / 100
Metascore
TMDB
6.7 / 10
Community rating
External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.
It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik, a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous acquaintances Sy Ableman.
CriticWise case file
What this film says about your taste.
Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.
The archetype split
Who fights over A Serious Man?
For the defence
The Sentimental Softie
“You came to feel something, and you will.”
Read their case For the prosecution
The Cool Ironist
“Feeling things is a little embarrassing.”
Read their objectionThe split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.
Taste neighbourhood
Nearby on the taste map.
TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.
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Choke
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The Doom Generation
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Where it lives
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Names above the title
The people responsible.
Cast & crew
Directed by
Joel Coen · Ethan Coen
Written by
Joel Coen · Ethan Coen
Michael Stuhlbarg
Larry Gopnik
Richard Kind
Uncle Arthur
Fred Melamed
Sy Ableman
Sari Lennick
Judith Gopnik
Aaron Wolff
Danny Gopnik
J
Jessica McManus
Sarah Gopnik
Peter Breitmayer
Mr. Brandt
Court is in session
Put A Serious Man on trial.
Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.
The prosecution The Cool Ironist
“The strings are showing.”
Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.