Gopnik is a physics professor in 1967 and he is Jewish. The latter label is prominent in his identity, much more so than his job, at least in terms of the story presented. His identity as a Jew is important in terms of how he views the world and how he addresses the challenge of that world. The most obvious consequence of his judaism is the fact that he turns to the Synagogue for answers.
I guess some people could view this as a man just turning to his faith, and that any religion would have been interchangeable, but I'd argue that the Synagogue offers different answers and raises different questions. What these may be, I don't really know...
(Editor's Note: Dave Lombardo doesn't know anything about religion. He thinks he does, but he is stupid, so he never really is aware of what he actually knows. Don't let him offend you. You don't get offended by the actions of a dumb ant, do you? Well Dave Lombardo is an ant in your life. Maybe not ignore him, but don't be surprised if he gets annoying.)
The most visible aspect of Judaism in the movie is the bar mitzvah of Larry's younger child. This event is included more in terms of the son's story line, who is played convincingly enough by Aaron Wolff, but for Larry it represents a cornerstone in his role as a father. It is just one of his responsibilities as a parent, specifically a Jewish parents, to see their child past this point.
Anyway, let me talk about the movie in sentences I actually understand. This movie is distinctly a product of the Coen brothers. Ok, I don't truly know what that means or how to articulate it, but once you've seen at least four of their pictures you'll get it.
In this case, the spiraling chaos of the movie is a characteristic of the Coen brothers. (spoiler alert) I say spiraling chaos, because it works as a good pun considering the town seems doomed to destruction by a tornado in the closing moments of the movie.
I really liked the world the Coen brothers created. It seemed realistic enough, except for the zany characters that occupied it.
I'm inclined to believe that the people are how the Coen brothers saw this world when they experienced it as kids, which explains their skewed perception. They're looking back through the foggy lens of time and the fact they couldn't have processed everything adequately. (Editor's Note: We're not sure where he drew those conclusions from. Dave probably heard someone smarter than him say something like that. We will be hunting down the possible sources he plagiarized so we'll have grounds to remove him and his worthless blog. Until then, be on the lookout for ideas that seem like they might be from NPR. That means liberal, whiny, introspective, lame, wordy, uber-liberal and begin with "This is Terri Gross from NPR.")
So why did I like this movie? Probably because it was funny, in a really depressing way. This is called dark humor or something equally contradictory, although at this point it should just be called Coen Humor.
The story captivates us because we follow a desperate man driven to the end of his rope by the people around him. His obstacles aren't exactly life or death, but with the way they're framed and revealed it feels like a thriller. That's a slight exaggeration. It is fair to say that you will get caught up in the world of Larry Gopnik, as it appears to be closing down on him. It's like when you know a car wreck is about to happen, and you can't look away.
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