Hmm...

Life has greatly slowed down our movie-watching lately. In between gigs for my husband's band and the Olympics, not to mention our regular schedule, our dvd players and movie tickets have been oh-so-lonely.

I don't think we will make it as far along through as many Oscar-nominated films as possible this year for a few reasons. #1 - We have been BUSY (see above)! #2 - It seemed that a smaller volume of the films came out on dvd before the award show. The last 2 years that has really allowed us to get a large chunk of them watched. #3 - If previous award shows and predictions are accurate, we've seen all of the winners. I think this is really what has kept my motivation low. We busted to see all of the Best Picture nominees and those that had already won acting awards, but last year we actually saw EVERY movie nominated for an acting award. This year I bet we've seen 30% or so? So speaking of Best Picture nominees...we finally saw the last one last night...

Netflix sent us A Serious Man at least a week ago. It's been sitting out neglected and alone (although protected from our cats and that is no easy feat). Yes, we're busy, but see my aforementioned statement concerning motivation. I hadn't heard anything that glowing about this film when it was in theatres (and Austin loves the Coen brothers), so I just haven't been too pumped about it (much more pumped about A Single Man - Best Actor nomination for Colin Firth, but alas, that was it's only nomination and down on the list you go).

I wouldn't say I'm pumped about it now after our viewing.

The film opens in turn-of-the-century Eastern Europe on a Jewish couple. This scene is spoken entirely in Yiddish and is a folk tale. FYI - it has nothing to do with the movie and merely "sets the tone," as the Coens put it. I wouldn't say it was as beautifully or lovingly done as the first scene in Inglourious Basterds, but it is neat (looking back) as a stand-alone vignette. This was how it was intended, so now you know (as I didn't) that it is not an integral plot device.

Someone I discussed this film with before I saw it put it this way, this is the Coen Bros.' "religious movie." They grew up Jewish in the Midwest in the '60's and this movie is about a Jewish man/father/husband/brother/professor in the Midwest in the '60's. In one sense, it is a re-telling of Job - but in a way it's not. And that may be what has left me so unsatisfied. Job is studied as a wisdom book in the Old Testament. Job is a most faithful servant of God and through a wager with Lucifer, an angel (widely believed to be the devil), God decides to test Job. God believes that no matter what Lucifer brings upon Job, Job will not turn away from the Lord. So Lucifer does just that. While Job becomes angry, he does not stray or blame God. At the end of the book (spoiler alert!), all of his life and luxuries come back and yay for Job!

While Larry (the focal character) is tested and tested and does not blame Hashem (God), Larry was never really that good in the first place. Not like Job is described to be. He is a physics professor, he owns a house, he has a wife and 2 kids, they go to temple - but there is nothing remarkable about Larry. He can't stand up for himself, he can't help his family. His defense for his troubles is: "I didn't do anything!" And that is precisely the problem - he has never done anything. He has just rolled with life without making a splash or being significant - to anything or anyone. I wish the Coen's would have explored that aspect, but except for the repitition it was left largely unexplored.

This movie definitely has its moments, but I am not sure why it is nominated for Best Picture. The main thing I got from this movie is - the Coens can pretty much make what ever they want at this point. That could be a good thing, but I remember feeling like this after seeing No Country for Old Men. Kind of like, how did we end up here? And where are we going?

Will we see anything else before Oscar night? I don't know. We may have time to grab a movie out over the weekend, or maybe we'll just make time watch Bright Star, the next film on our queue.

Any thoughts for an Oscar night menu?