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This is a Coen Brother’s movie I ran into in the library recently. It’s about a Jewish math and physics professor who is being “acted upon” by many opposing forces. His wife who wants a divorce, his children who are always fighting and making demands on him, his brother who is always in trouble, a student at work who is trying to bribe him into giving a passing grade, a neighbor who is trying to annex part of his property, and an unknown person who is writing letters to his tenure committee casting dispersions on his moral character, and an attractive neighbour with an absent husband who is a frequent source of temptation for him. And also — Columbia House Records keeps hounding him for payment on a record membership this guy never signed up for. For most of the movie his life is in a shambles, except at this point, he still has his family, still has his job, and still owns his home and possesses his health. He turns to several Rabbis for help in how to save his marriage and help him with his other problems, and in my view, comes away completely empty-handed. There is one Rabbi who refuses to see him, and who we are left to believe has all the answers. The whole time, I was frustrated with how good this man was, and how the world kept trying to take everything important away from him. However, fortuitous events lessen some of his problems, and then, this good man makes a choice and immediately experiences a startling consequence, as does his son.
This is a thinker’s movie — thinkers like the people we have on this site who don’t take everything at face value, and who might relate to this man’s final state when he makes a bad choice. And also who might see the compelling truth given by the old Rabbi who shares the answer to his father’s question with his newly bar-mitvah -ed son.
All this is done with dry, intellectual humor and funny dialogue, kind of like the dialogue you sometimes get in Fargo, if you’re familiar with that movie. You will have to tolerate some swearing unfortunately.
If anyone would care to watch and discuss the meaning of the movie, I’d love to do so here.
Here is a link to the movie on Amazon:
I think I know what it means, however, it’s the kind of movie you need to watch a couple times and then think about for a couple days before you understand the true meaning of life it shares.
Sounds interesting SD. I’ll have to check it out and get back to you. Bridget Great — I think that would be wonderful. The more the better because at first the ending seemed unsatisfying — then I realized there was MUCH deeper meaning to be had. Still germinating…looking forward to other participants. This does sound fascinating, and I think I’ve heard about it in the past. I’ll try to get a copy and see what I think.
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