I don’t think I’ve ever actually typed the word “God” in a post entry. TIME’s Richard Corliss made me do it with his intricate review of sorts of the Coen Brothers A Serious Man, not to be confused with A Single Man. I don’t think there is one called A Serious, Single Man (it’s probably too brainy of a concept to do a YouTube mash-up of the two movies – I’m just hoping Oscar voters know them well enough as separate entities when it comes to voting). Here is how Corliss ends his piece on the film:
As Fate keeps stomping him, he embraces Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle. What he tells his class about the theory ‚Äî “Even if you can’t figure it out, you’re still responsible for it on the midterm” ‚Äî applies, in spades, to his crumbling life. And yet for most of the movie he hangs in there, behaving honorably, seeking the wisdom of his ancestors, trying to observe the Jewish concept of Hashem. “Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you,” says Elie Wiesel’s Rashi. To absorb God’s body blows, this disquieting, haunting movie says, is to be fully alive. To do otherwise could kill you.
That last sentence may well be my favorite of this entire awards season so far, which seems like it began with Cannes and ended with Toronto. Alas, this is just the festival phase. Now come the movies. To absorb God’s body blows is no easy feat. Leave it to the Coen brothers, though, to go there.
