The latest from the Coen Brothers has also made many critics' 2009 top 10 lists, and has been nominated for one Golden Globe.
It's 1967. Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg), a physics professor at a Midwestern university, has just been informed by his wife Judith (Sari Lennick) that she is leaving him, having fallen in love with the more "substantial" Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed). Meanwhile, Larry's unemployable brother Arthur (Richard Kind) is sleeping on the couch, his son Danny (Aaron Wolff) has a discipline problem, his daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus) is stealing money to pay for a nose job, an anonymous letter-writer is trying to sabotage Larry's chances for tenure, and a graduate student seems to be trying to bribe him for a passing grade. Plus, the beautiful woman next door torments him by sunbathing nude.
Struggling for some kind of equilibrium, Larry seeks someone help him cope with his ills and become a righteous person--a mensch--a serious man.
"[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." --Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times
(Rated R for language, some sexuality/nudity, and brief violence.)
