Who can say to him, “What are you doing?” (Job 9:12)
Oy vey, the Book of Job gets adapted into a movie by the Coen Brothers. With such source material, it is much funnier than you would think it could be. But this is not a comedy. It’s not even really a drama. And although its got some elements of horror, it can hardly be classified as that either. It’s probably best classified as essay porn (and yes I just made that genre up). It’s a thinker that many religion teachers may someday make their students write a term paper on. Like all Coen Brothers’ movies this one has very little in common with any previous Coen Brothers’ movie. They’ve previously done such works as The Big Lebowski, Oh Brother Where Art Thou, Fargo, Raising Arizona, No Country for Old Men and Burn After Reading. This movie takes place in a Minnesota suburb in the late sixties. Above all else, it is very Jewish. Like I said nothing like their other movies. But just as quirky, darkly comic, and very original.
The book of Job was the first book of the Bible I ever read. It always had a scary magnetism to it like a well-written horror story. It is very different from the lovey-dovey New Testament. There is no ‘consider the lillies’ sentimentality in it. In this book terrible things happen to good people and they seem to happen for no reason at all. Job in the course of a day loses his entire fortune, family, and health. Why? He has no idea. He always was a pious god-fearing man. Three friends visit him and insist that he must have done something wrong to deserve his fate. After all God is just. He rewards the good and punishes the wicked. But Job is steadfast. He declares his innocence and voices his desire to obtain an explanation for his sorry state. He doesn’t curse God; all he wants to know is why. Why has God forsaken him?
In this movie, the character of Job is Lawrence Gopnik (played by Michael Stuhlberg), a family man and physics professor about to receive tenure. Sure enough, bad things start to happen to Larry. His wife wants a divorce and asks him to leave the house. Why? She doesn’t say. The tenure committee is receiving letters denigrating his moral standing. They are anonymous. His neighbor is oddly hostile and may be encroaching on his property line. His oafish sickly brother (Richard Kind from Spin City) has taken up space permanently on his couch. Then there is marijuana, Jefferson Airplane records, strange deaths, and a daughter who seems to do nothing but wash her hair anymore. Larry is at a loss as to why all these things are suddenly happening. He didn’t do anything. What does it all mean?
A friend says that maybe these things are happening because God is trying to tell him something. What it is she doesn’t know but she suggests that Larry talk to a rabbi. Larry goes to three rabbis. Rabbi Scott (Simon Helberg from The Big Bang Theory) seems to be about twenty years old and admits he doesn’t have the kind of life experience that advises a person in Larry’s situation. He does suggest that Larry “consider the parking lot” outside. At times it only looks like a parking lot, but if you look at it a different way and strip yourself of the knowledge of how asphalt and cars work, it can actually look somewhat wonderful and mysterious. In this way Larry can see God in the world. This advice doesn’t go over well, especially since Larry is the kind of physics professor who deals in paradoxes like Shrodinger’s cat and uncertainty proofs. There is a scary/funny scene where Larry fills a giant blackboard with a large complex math proof that proves nothing except that there is no way of knowing anything for certain (it will still be on the midterm though). Such is the annoying thing about God. You can get the best education in the world and not learn a thing about his plans, but steep yourself in ignorance and you can see him in everything, even a parking lot.
The second Rabbi is not very helpful either. All he does is make jokes. To his credit they are some of the best laughs in the movie. (Did you hear the one about the Goy’s teeth?) But he out and out admits that he hasn’t the slightest clue what God is doing. The way he does it though explains so much about Jewish Comedy. It basically springs from a very human response to a sort of cosmic absurdity: That the people especially chosen by an all-powerful God were fated to be the most put upon and terrorized people in human history. What does that tell you about the nature of God? We laugh because there are no tears left.
Every person in the movie tells Larry that there is one person he must talk to, and that is Rabbi Marshakt, a very old and wise man. Unfortunately Larry can’t get to the guy, as he is too busy thinking. His son is able to do so though after his bar mitzvah. What the rabbi says to him is worth the great suspense the movie creates for the moment. What it means is something else of course. Is it profound or is it a joke? I suppose it depends on how you feel about the source.
The Coen Brothers have taken pains not to cast anyone you are remotely familiar with. The only people I recognized were Richard Kind and the delusional nerd from The Big Bang Theory. This gives the movie a very personal and distinct feel to it. There aren’t even any stock Coen Brother actors in this movie. The only person to be in a previous film is Michael Lerner (Barton Fink) and he has but one scene and if I remember correctly no actual lines. It is a very memorable performance nonetheless.
This movie ranks up their with all the other great Coen Brothers films. It’s not on their top tier with Fargo, The Big Lebowski, or No Country for Old Men. But it is on par with the likes of O Brother Where Art Thou, The Hudsucker Proxy, and Raising Arizona. It may get awards because it happens to be the type of movie that gets nominations. But besides the haunting original score, I can’t say anything in particular jumped out at me. As always Roger Deakins does a superb job as the cinematographer. But unfortunately this isn’t the type of movie that gets noticed for that. His much deserved Oscar will have to wait another year.
There is one scene that particularly weighs on me as I write this review. One night Larry’s brother goes somewhat nutty and has a breakdown in an abandoned pool at the motel they are both staying at. He denounces God and wails that Hashem has never given him anything. He is especially distressed by his recent blacklist from a neighborhood poker game. All he had in life was playing cards and now he can’t even do that. As bad as Larry’s situation is, it is not as pathetic as his brother’s. Larry, frustrated and confused more than ever just blurts it out: Maybe instead of depending on God, you should help yourself out. What a good question, I mean if God is unknowable why bother with him at all? And perhaps the final scenes are a very cynical answer to that question.
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