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A SERIOUS MANMovie Reviews
Comedy drama about the patriarch of a Jewish family in 1967 Midwestern America who is forced to contend with several crises simultaneously. Cast:Michael Stuhlbarg, Sari Lennick, Richard Kind, Fred Melamed, Aaron Wolf, Adam ArkinDirector:Ethan Coen, Joel CoenRelease Date:October 2, 2009DVD Release:February 9, 2010From:Focus FeaturesRating:RLength:1 hr 46 min
FEBRUARY 9, 2010
A Serious Man, Outstanding Reviews, Mixed National
A Serious Man played in national release to outstanding reviews that at the same time were mixed. • Colin Covert wrote in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, "...technically flawless, from its precisely calibrated sound effects to editing that cuts each scene like a samurai sword. The cast is a treasure trove." • And Joe Morgenstern wrote in the Wall Street Journal, "...pitilessly bleak..." More Reviews Below...
A Serious Man Positive Reviews (44 Reviews, reviews below)
Leah Rozen, People: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...the humor, distinctively Jewish, is predicated on the notion that bad things will happen, not sometimes but always. It's oy vey 24/7, but all you can do is laugh."(See all of Leah Rozen's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 100 words, 10/01/09
Richard Corliss, Time: VERY GOOD "...a rare event in movies, where action is character. It's certainly rare for the Coens, in that this is one fable that is worth taking seriously."(See all of Richard Corliss's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 876 words, 10/02/09
Owen Gleiberman, Entertainment Weekly: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...isn't perfect... but it's cathartic to see the Coens finally show you a bit of who they are, or at least where they came from."(See all of Owen Gleiberman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 437 words, 10/01/09
Christy Lemire, Associated Press: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...the Coens' most thoughtful and personal film.... even if it's not immediately clear what they have in mind for their characters, they'll keep you thinking about them..."(See all of Christy Lemire's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 635 words, 10/01/09
Thelma Adams, Us Weekly: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...bleak comedy about growing up Jewish is a dryly amusing, and ultimately disturbing, take on a father's search for meaning in his uncertain world."(See all of Thelma Adams's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 75 words, 10/01/09
Claudia Puig, USA Today: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...a wonderfully odd, bleakly comic and thoroughly engrossing film. Underlying the grim humor are serious questions about faith, family, mortality and misfortune."(See all of Claudia Puig's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 528 words, 10/02/09
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Joe Neumaier, New York Daily News: MODERATE(cg) "The humor is sharp and so are the judgments, which pile on until the characters are nearly suffocated under the weight of so much disdain."(See all of Joe Neumaier's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 359 words, 10/02/09
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: OUTSTANDING(cg) "Have I mentioned 'A Serious Man' is so rich and funny? This isn't a laugh-laugh movie, but a wince-wince movie. Those can be funny, too."(See all of Roger Ebert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 953 words, 10/08/09
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: OUTSTANDING "...the Coens' most personal, most intensely Jewish film, a pitch-perfect comedy of despair that, against some odds, turns out to be one of their most universal as well."(See all of Kenneth Turan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 849 words, 10/02/09
Lou Lumenick, New York Post: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...conveys a vivid sense of time and place, and much of the excellently chosen cast are semi-professional locals recruited from the filming locations in Minnesota."(See all of Lou Lumenick's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 402 words, 10/02/09
Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...tart, brilliantly acted... a Coen brothers comedy with a darker philosophical outlook than 'No Country for Old Men' but with a script rich in verbal wit."(See all of Michael Phillips's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 834 words, 10/09/09
Rafer Guzman, New York Newsday: VERY GOOD(cg) "...life according to the Coen brothers, whose bleak world view seems shaped by the 'Book of Job' and Franz Kafka's 'The Trial.' "(See all of Rafer Guzman's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 256 words, 10/02/09
David Edelstein, New York Magazine: OUTSTANDING "...an artistic leap, although it's far from perfect.... not only hauntingly original, it's the final piece of the puzzle that is the Coens."(See all of David Edelstein's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 843 words, 09/28/09
Rick Groen, Toronto Globe & Mail: VERY GOOD(cg) "Black, because affliction and angst abound. Comic, because this rampant bleakness is presented as nothing more than an amusing bauble."(See all of Rick Groen's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 815 words, 10/16/09
Ella Taylor, Village Voice/LA Weekly: POOR "Is 'A Serious Man' a work of Jewish self-loathing?... just about every character the Coens create is meant to affirm their own superiority."(See all of Ella Taylor's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 747 words, 09/30/09
Ann Hornaday, Washington Post: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...succeeds because it engages questions worth asking. What is integrity? What does it mean to be good and how are we to achieve it?"(See all of Ann Hornaday's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 950 words, 10/09/09
Mick LaSalle, Houston Chronicle/San Francisco Chronicle: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...combines the spiritual desolation of 'No Country for Old Men' with the black comedy of 'Burn After Reading.' It's an unusual and effective combination."(See all of Mick LaSalle's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 701 words, 10/16/09
Christopher Kelly, Dallas Morning News: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...this time the Coens wed their singular style to an intellectual probity and moral purpose. It's the best film of their careers."(See all of Christopher Kelly's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 669 words, 10/09/09
Ty Burr, Boston Globe: OUTSTANDING(cg) "In a culture addicted to giving us the good news, such profound comic bleakness feels cleansing and true. Today the Coens become a man."(See all of Ty Burr's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,072 words, 10/09/09
Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star-Tribune: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...technically flawless, from its precisely calibrated sound effects to editing that cuts each scene like a samurai sword. The cast is a treasure trove."(See all of Colin Covert's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 608 words, 10/02/09
Moira Macdonald, Seattle Times: VERY GOOD(cg) "A funny, personal film.... its cast, mostly drawn from theater, wins us over, despite the tone of constant kvetching and misfortune."(See all of Moira Macdonald's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 532 words, 10/09/09
Clint O'Connor, Cleveland Plain-Dealer: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...endlessly clever... sometimes laugh-out-loud funny, sometimes simmering funny with lines and moments that creep up on you for extra smiles days later."(See all of Clint O'Connor's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 444 words, 10/23/09
Shawn Levy, Portland Oregonian: OUTSTANDING(cg) "It's about life, 'A Serious Man' is, and it's as close, I think, as any American narrative movie of recent vintage has come to touching on the uncanniness of it."(See all of Shawn Levy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 667 words, 10/09/09
Calvin Wilson, St. Louis Post-Dispatch: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...the Coens haven't allowed Oscars (for 'No Country' and 'Fargo') or a devoted following to distract them from their idiosyncratic artistry."(See all of Calvin Wilson's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 314 words, 10/16/09
Steve Persall, St. Petersburg Times: MODERATE(cg) "...supposedly the Coens' most personal film.... You have to wonder why they'd revisit a time and place they apparently don't recall fondly."(See all of Steve Persall's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 511 words, 11/01/09
Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: GOOD (NOT GREAT)(cg) "...a cryptic Minnesota-Jewish riff on the Biblical Book of Job. The Coens' most inside joke ever, it leaves you with a lot to chew on, if not a lot to enjoy."(See all of Roger Moore's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 567 words, 10/23/09
Rene Rodriguez, Miami Herald: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...often recalls 'Barton Fink' without all the distancing stylistic fluorishes and ends on an astonishing final shot that ranks among the best in the Coens' canon."(See all of Rene Rodriguez's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 605 words, 10/23/09
Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun: MODERATE(cg) "...there are Jews everywhere, also a couple of Koreans and a smattering of Gentiles. They are nothing like each other. And there are no recognizable human beings."(See all of Michael Sragow's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 958 words, 10/23/09
Ella Taylor, Village Voice/LA Weekly: POOR "Is 'A Serious Man' a work of Jewish self-loathing?... just about every character the Coens create is meant to affirm their own superiority."(See all of Ella Taylor's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 747 words, 09/30/09
Peter Travers, Rolling Stone: OUTSTANDING(cg) "...a seriously funny movie, artfully photographed by the great Roger Deakins... spiritual in nature, barbed in tone, and, oh, yeah, it stings like hell."(See all of Peter Travers's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 374 words, 10/02/09
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: FAIR "...what do the Coens want us to think of the repellent people in this pitilessly bleak movie?... mysterious, provocative and, occasionally, very funny."(See all of Joe Morgenstern's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 430 words, 10/02/09
David Denby, New Yorker: WEAK "As a piece of moviemaking craft, 'A Serious Man' is fascinating; in every other way, it's intolerable.... The Coens' humor is distant, dry, and shrivelling..."(See all of David Denby's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 1,000 words, 09/28/09
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: OUTSTANDING "...the Coens' most personal, most intensely Jewish film, a pitch-perfect comedy of despair that, against some odds, turns out to be one of their most universal as well."(See all of Kenneth Turan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 849 words, 10/02/09
MOVIE INDUSTRY (5 Reviews)
Todd McCarthy, Daily Variety: GOOD "...a well-shaped series of anecdotes that bespeaks distant pain or, at least, wincing memory twisted into mordant comedy by time and sensibility."(See all of Todd McCarthy's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 986 words, 09/14/09
Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter: VERY GOOD "The always surprising Coen brothers have finally made a very serious movie... about God, man's place in the world and the meaning of life... it's one of their funnier movies."(See all of Kirk Honeycutt's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 860 words, 09/14/09
Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: OUTSTANDING "...the Coens' most personal, most intensely Jewish film, a pitch-perfect comedy of despair that, against some odds, turns out to be one of their most universal as well."(See all of Kenneth Turan's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 849 words, 10/02/09
Joe Morgenstern, Wall Street Journal: FAIR "...what do the Coens want us to think of the repellent people in this pitilessly bleak movie?... mysterious, provocative and, occasionally, very funny."(See all of Joe Morgenstern's reviews...)(Read the full review...) 430 words, 10/02/09
24.6 Percentage Points Average Difference Between Reviews (Norm is 18.4pp; <18.4pp = More Consistent; >18.4pp = More Mixed)
A Serious Man's reviews are separated by an average 24.6 percentage points. The norm for this measure is 18.4 percentage points. Less than 18.4 indicates more consistent reviews; greater than 18.4 indicates more mixed reviews. In the chart below, each dot represents a review, with the dots at the top more positive than the dots at the bottom. From left to right, the dots represent reviews in big, bigger and biggest publications. Roll over each dot for more detail.
A Serious Man (44 reviews) Roll over dots for each review
Coverage:A Serious Man's reviews cover 89.3% of potential readers (average is 67.9%). Volume:The film's reviews total 27,173 words involume (average is 20,194 words). Length:The film's reviews average 618 words in length (the norm is 517 words).
A Serious Man Coverage, Volume & Length (44 Reviews, reviews below)
Reviews Broke 29.9 Hours After Release (Norm is 1.2 Release)
A Serious Man's reviews on average broke 29.9 hours after opening. Norm for this measure is 1.2 hours before. The chart below shows reviews on opening day and the days before and after opening; the left side is earlier and the right side is later. The red bars extending above the horizontal mid-line represent more positive reviews, and the red bars extending below represent more negative reviews. The white space/red bar in the middle is A Serious Man's opening day. Click on any bar for a list of the reviews for that day.
A Serious Man (44 reviews, click on bars for reviews)
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