MovieChat Forums > A Serious Man (2009) Discussion > I turned this off after the first scene.

I turned this off after the first scene.


My wife and I wanted to watch a comedy and this came up in the list. The first scene was horrible, with that awful sounding language and it wasn't funny at all. Moreover the subtitles didn't help much. What is a deduck or whatever they were calling him? We figured out it was a movie about Jews and you had to be Jewish to get it. I love Cohen brothers movies, but this movie was just ugly. Maybe we just weren't in the mood for this movie, but the first scene didn't capture my interest.

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Maybe the film was too much for you.

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I watched the bonus features on the DVD. The first scene is in Yiddish and really has nothing to do with the rest of the film except the Yiddish terms used int he film. The scene is likened to the short cartoons before the feature film.

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I wish I was smart enough to cut it off after 10 minutes, 90 minutes of watching grass grow would have been better. A serious Man = A $hitty movie.

I would like to go back in time and kill the idiot who created the term "reimagining."

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go watch the avengers, you bore

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In regard to your sig... I think the first use of the term 'reimagining' was applied to Tim Burton's version of Planet of the Apes.

Horrible term...




Never defend crap with 'It's just a movie'
http://www.youtube.com/user/BigGreenProds

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Yeah, better stick with The Hangover or Wedding Crashers. "Awful sounding language"? LOL!!!!

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I never get why these two movies are used in this context so much. Both of those films are well liked and largely believed to be good raunchy humour. I absolutely adore A Serious Man, I have it on DVD. But I also have the Hangover AND Wedding Crashers. Does that invalidate my love of this film?

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I'm afraid so. j/k

Leave the gun, take the cannoli...

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Ha, ha, ha! What a golem! That "awful sounding language" is Yiddish. I love the sound, I also enjoyed the Yiddish song that Gopnik kept playing. Everyone should know something about the Eastern European Jewish culture, which was all but wiped out thanks to close-minded "master race" folks. This is a fable made up by the Coen brothers which evokes the stimmung of the film itself, containing elements such as the wife who stabs a knife right into the "mystery," the gullible, kind-hearted husband, the air of doom and gloom which underlies the events in the life of Larry Gopnik (the family surname means "drunken lout"), an American, middle-class Job whose trials are surrealistically horrific yet who plods on, never cursing God, never dying. Fortunately, I am familiar with the background, having a knowledge of Yiddish and the Eastern European mystique. It is probably confusing and hence hostile to someone who knows nothing of the dybbuk, the mitzvah, the idea of curses, all the panoply of Jewish lore. Although I am not Jewish myself, I deem it important to know as much about my fellow human beings as possible. It is eminently rewarding especially when it comes to watching films about another way of life.

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You are a racist, classless moron. And your wife needs to stick to cooking eggs.



'Then' and 'than' are completely different words and have completely different meanings.

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You are a racist, classless moron. And your wife needs to stick to cooking eggs.


Oh god, no. Last time his wife made me breakfast she burned the eggs.

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I watched this movie as a drama with comedic elements. Through that lens, the movie is very good.

If you look at it as a comedy - Larry's divorce, stress and search for answers and all of Arthur's story doesn't fit. These were some of the strongest elements to the film, so I don't want to dismiss them.

There's definitely comedy in this film, but it's not a straight comedy.

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That's not really a bright thing to do. I'm not sure either what the point of that first scene was. The rest of the movie is great, not your average comedy, but really good.
btw I think you should never turn off a movie after the first scene.

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Right, and it was also PRETENTIOUS. I love using the word pretentious. I see people using the word all the time. I'm always really impressed by people who use that word.

Now, I haven't watched this movie yet, but still, I can just tell that it's going to be PRETENTIOUS. God, but I **LOVE** that word!

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I read somewhere the opening is just to get you in the mood.





I understand the dead cat.

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