We were successful.  After a car ride, figuring out "charlie cards" to ride the T, a short walk, and a maze of building entrances, we finally found the only theater in Cambridge showing the Coen Brothers latest flick - A Serious Man.  As far as I know it's not playing anywhere in New Hampshire, and the spot we found was only one of three in the greater Boston area.  Fortunately it was worth the hassle.

The first thing we noticed after walking into the theater is the sea of white hair.  It's always interesting why certain groups or age-groups of people decide to go see a film.  For example, we all remembered many "older" attendees when Wes Anderson's The Royal Tenenbaums came out and we're pretty sure the draw was Gene Hackman.  They kept pushing him in the trailers and that's probably what drew the older crowd.  I'd like to assume that the older, more wiser crowd just knows the Coen Brothers put out a good product.

I keep reading reviews where it talks about the film being a cast of unknowns.  I immediately recognized several actors, but I watch a lot of film and TV, so I may not be the best litmus test for that one.  Before getting to the theater we met up with a college buddy of mine, Crickit, and his special lady, Anita.  Anita wasn't too familiar with the Coens so we tried to prepare her with a few tips.

• It'll be funny, but not in a standard comedy sort of way
• The characters will probably do some weird things
• The plot probably won't make a lot of sense
• Try to pay attention to the dialog
• Different characters, things, scenes will be connected to each other
• The ending probably won't wrap everything up

Interestingly enough, I think all of our predictions came through.  In fact, we even had some kind movie-goers behind us that gave us a run-down of every scene while the movie was playing.  Luckily I was on the far end of hearing distance and was able to ignore them pretty well, but movie-talkers can be extremely annoying.  Besides the running commentary, they were sure to let the whole room know when something was funny by laughing extra loud during the scene and for several seconds afterwards.  Oh, and if you didn't get the hint, they declared, "That was funny!" in case you're bad with social queues.

All in all it was a great experience and we're looking forward to seeing it again.  I don't want to get into plot, thoughts, or comparing it to other Coen films because we'll save all that for an episode.  Liz thought I was wearing a simliar shirt to Larry on the movie poster.  As much of a "serious man" that I am, it was hard to be serious while copying Larry on his roof.

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Comments (1)

• 2009-10-12 13:27:55 |Author| TIMMAH
  

  If there was a Beantown version of Mr. Sobchak, Crickit would come close.

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