A Serious Man

Release Date: October 2, 2009 (limited)

Studio: Focus Features

Director: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Screenwriter: Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

Starring: Michael Stuhlbarg, Fred Melamed, Richard Kind, Aaron Wolf, Sari Wagner, Jessica McManus, Adam Arkin

Genre: Comedy, Drama

MPAA Rating: R (for language, some sexuality/nudity and brief violence)

Plot Summary: "A Serious Man" is the story of an ordinary man's search for clarity in a universe where Jefferson Airplane is on the radio and F-Troop is on TV. It is 1967, and Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor at a quiet Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith (Sari Lennick) that she is leaving him. She has fallen in love with one of his more pompous colleagues, Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed), who seems to her a more substantial person than the feckless Larry. Larry's unemployable brother Arthur (Richard Kind) is sleeping on the couch, his son Danny (Aaron Wolf) is a discipline problem and a shirker at Hebrew school, and his daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus) is filching money from his wallet in order to save up for a nose job. While his wife and Sy Ableman blithely make new domestic arrangements, and his brother becomes more and more of a burden, an anonymous hostile letter-writer is trying to sabotage Larry's chances for tenure at the university. Also, a graduate student seems to be trying to bribe him for a passing grade while at the same time threatening to sue him for defamation. Plus, the beautiful woman next door torments him by sunbathing nude. Struggling for equilibrium, Larry seeks advice from three different rabbis. Can anyone help him cope with his afflictions and become a righteous person – a mensch – a serious man?
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Richard John Kind (born November 22, 1956) is an American actor known for his roles in the sitcoms "Mad About You" (as Dr. Mark Devanow) and "Spin City" (as Paul Thomas Lassiter).
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Adam Arkin (born August 19, 1957)[1] is an American television, film, and stage actor and director. He is best known for playing neurosurgeon Aaron Shutt on Chicago Hope. He is also one of the three actors to portray Dale "The Whale" Biederbeck on Monk. As of 2009[update] he stars in the NBC drama Life. He is the son of actor Alan Arkin.
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George Wyner (born October 25, 1945) is an American film and television actor. He is probably best known for his role as ADA Bernstein on the series Hill Street Blues. Wyner graduated from Syracuse University in 1968 as a drama major, and was an in-demand character actor by the early 1970s. To date, Wyner has made guest appearances in over 100 television series and co-starred in nine. He is also noted for memorable turns in cult classics such as Spaceballs, American Pie 2 and Fletch.
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Philip “Fyvush” Finkel (born October 9, 1922 in Brooklyn, New York) is an American actor best known as a star of Yiddish theater and for his role as lawyer Douglas Wambaugh on the television series Picket Fences, for which he earned an Emmy Award in 1994. He is also known for his portrayal of Harvey Lipschultz, a crotchety U.S. history teacher, on the Fox Broadcasting TV series Boston Public.
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