A Serious Man, not an easy movie to figure out

I saw the most recent Coen Brothers movie, A Serious Man, the other night, and once again these guys found a way to surprise me. Honestly, nothing they do should really surprise me anymore, but this one was pretty unique. It was very Jewish and very into 60s rock. The music was Jefferson Airplane and Jimmy Hendrix and the plot was a black comedy about a man whose life was falling apart. In that way it reminded me of their film noir The Man Who Wasn't There, only there were no crimes and murders here. But there was certainly a femme fatale. Or two. The movie told of this man and his son and his wife leaving him for another man, and his job at school (a blackmail incident, so yeah, some crime I suppose), and his possible tenure. During the course of the film, the man goes to see three rabbis and each one is a pretty humorours experience. The tooth story is truly wonderful. The movie as a whole is just okay, but like most of their movies, I'm sure its smarter than it appears on the surface and will take some serious thinking about and maybe even multiple viewings to truly understand.