Serious men

“A Serious Man” is one of Joel and Ethan Coen’s three best efforts alongside “Fargo” and “No Country for Old Men,” and that’s saying a lot coming from a guy who considers “Fargo” one of his top three favorite films. It’s a glaringly personal work that still contains the Coens’ trademark pitch-black humor and obsessive attention to detail.

It would be easy to describe the film as a 1960s-era meditation on the Book of Job, but the brilliant screenplay has much more on its mind than a simple allegory of suffering, questioning and acceptance. The Coens and their cast tackle the consequences of action and inaction as they relate to fate, the universe and a possible god who could be sadistic, apathetic or purposeful depending on the day.

The actors are uniformly excellent, led by Michael Stuhlbarg, who was robbed of an Oscar nomination for his performance as long-suffering physics professor Larry Gopnik.

The extras on this single-disc edition are slim but worthwhile for the peek inside the Coens’ methods. “Becoming Serious” is the primary doc exploring how  “A Serious Man” reflects the Coens’ own Jewish upbringing in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. It goes by too fast, and the Coens don’t open up as much as you’d like them to, but any opportunity to hear them discuss one of their own films is worth taking.