Coens back to a darker place.

TheBigMovie A SERIOUS MAN (15) Verdict: HHHII HE trailer is great...

Tbut this film will either grab you or it won't.

A Serious Man is the latest release from The Coen Brothers who, like Steve Soderbergh, can be something of an acquired taste.

After hitting the mainstream and winning the best picture Oscar with No Country For Old Men, the duo behind the masterful Fargo then went down a rather starry comedic road with George Clooney and Brad Pitt in the uneven Burn After Reading.

Now the Coens are once again heading back into seriously off-kilter, black comedy territory.

Despite strong reviews across the pond, A Serious Man has taken less than $7 million at more than 250 screens in the US since it was first released six weeks ago. Brain-neutral popcorn munchers should approach with caution.

Though not autobiographical, the action is set in a world the Coens' recognise from their own lives in 1967.

Midwestern physics professor Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhlbarg) is faced with his wife suddenly announcing that she's going to leave him for Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed) - when he's surely a rather pompous, fatter, bearded alternative for any dutiful wife to consider.

But, before we even get that far, the extended opening begins with subtitles.

And, since it looks like a bizarre foreign film you've stumbled into by mistake, concentrating on the text flowing at the bottom of the screen might put a dampener on your plans to have an easy going, fun night out.

A Serious Man goes on to question everything from faith and Judaism to bizarre dental inscriptions, life as a teacher, unpredictable domesticity and the role of maths in religion.

Like a Prime Minister pretending to run a country to make life better for all of us, what can any one father really do about a brother called Arthur (Richard Kind) dossing on his couch instead of getting a job; a son, Danny (Aaron Wolff) who is not the full cent at Hebrew school and a daughter Sarah (Jessica McManus) who has an unorthodox way of trying to fund a nose job.

With a glamorous nextdoor neighbour sunbathing in the nude, nobody would deny Larry the right to play away.

But can three different rabbis help him to become a "mensch" - a serious man - and so be better able to cope with a world that seems to be falling apart around him.

Opening with a line from medieval French commentator Rashi - "Receive with simplicity everything that happens to you" - A Serious Man makes Gopnik wonder what he's done to deserve his life.

And what can he do about it when he has done nothing wrong himself.

Such is life for all of us. Jews and non-Jews alike.

If A Serious Man strikes a nerve, this will be a richlyrewarding experience which proves that no man is alone in his loneliness of failure because most of us are in the same boat.

Anyone looking for schmaltz and happy endings should run a mile. Website: http://filminfocus. com

CAPTION(S):

Getting serious: The Gopnik family and (right) Larry (Michael Stuhlbarg) with rival Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed). Fraught circumstances: Professor Larry Gopnik (Michael Stuhbarg) and his wife Sarah (Jessica McManus in A Serious Man.