The Coen brothers are out with a new one. Among my favorite film-makers today, the Coen brothers just released “A Serious Man,” based in part on the biblical Job. I’m eager to see how they handle the story. Do they present their Job as a saint, of storied patience, like the popular characterization of this biblical figure. Or do they show their Job railing against his friends and even God, agonizing about his fate with alternating quietude and fury, as he appears in the biblical texts? I wonder how they present the origins of their Job’s suffering. Is God be implicated, or no? And how does it end, since the biblical Job’s final statement is a bit of an enigma, or at least affords a couple of different interpretations. Whatever the case, I anticipate some humor, gritty poignancy, and a fresh “take” on the timeless problem of undeserved suffering.
