A Serious (Wo)man
We watched A Serious Man by the Coen brothers on Saturday night after learning that most of the Academy Nominees are on On Demand now. It was certainly a departure for these guys but nevertheless an entertaining story that borrows from the Book of Job to tell the plight of a man trying to be good against an onslaught of tribulations coming his way. It’s an interesting premise man against everyone/thing else and trying hard to stay sane.
I was listening to Frances McDormand the other day talking about how she thinks her husband does not write good enough roles for women. Although she has played some marvelous roles in his films, most definitely as the pregnant police woman in Fargo. [as an aside, Frances was adopted] But more importantly, I was trying to think of how equally funny it would be to have a woman protagonist with her husband leaving her for another, adolescent kids, career struggles, coping with a sibling who has lost her mind and as I tried to work out how that would go script-wise all I could think is that it would be just another day in the woman’s life whereas for the man – this is all “a lot” a la Job. Interesting.