A Slight Fail

Larry Gopnik is professor and his life is about fall part because his wife is planning on leaving him. Larry tries to figure out where his life is heading, as he tries to manage his career his brother and being a father all at the same time.

I liked the realistic 70's feel to the film and some of the music that was played over a few scenes, but that is where my liking for this film basically stops. This film was one of those films that left you saying "Did that actually end?" There were so many questions throughout the film, so many odd bits introduced and so what do the Coen brothers decide to do? End the film during the best scene in the film. The Coens had the fans hooked with the feel, but after that they brought a weak cast of characters, ones that they failed to really add substance too. I thought the characterization of Gopnik was repetitive and he kept going through the same old routine as the film progresses.

This film lacked in so many ways. The Coen’s delivered their flattest film since No Country For Old Men, a film I also could not buy into. The Coen’s seem to have a knack for getting mediocre pictures recognized by the academy. I simply just don’t get what these guys are all about. I mean No Country for Old Men was a decent flick but nowhere near Academy Award winning material, and I have to say the same for this flick. All though it is pretty clear this picture is not going to win come Oscar Sunday.

As much as I did not like the film, I really wanted too, and there will little elements that I could relate to. For example the brother sister relationship seemed real enough, and I did like the tie in with the Jewish faith.

I just think this film comes down to its main Character Larry Gopnik having no real development or any stand out character trait we can really relate to as an audience. I feel the Coens put too much effort into the world he lived in and the situations he was a part of instead of really giving us a character we felt compassion for.

In the end this is simply my take on this film, and this film has been getting rave reviews and many people liked it, and I can honestly see why. It is a faith we often do not see a lot of on the big screen, and the Coen brothers really tried for offbeat comedy but they failed miserably at establishing the off beat humour in which they were looking to present.

This film had no clear cut ending, and I think that was a mistake, the ending scene was too dramatic and too good to just leave it open. I didn’t buy into this film until the final scene and then just like the rest of the film they found some way of throwing the little bit of greatness they had away. I really wanted more out of the Coen brothers. I was hoping to be amazed at what I saw because usually I really connect with these types of films. Yet I still hope that the next Coen brother’s project is good and I will continue to watch their films because they have the potential as I saw with “Burn after Reading”


5/10