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The most important character link (and the key to the film’s ending/message, if there indeed is one) in the film is between Larry and his son. This is most obvious in the way the film is bookended (apart from the prologue) by very closely linked sequences crosscutting between father and son.

It didn’t make sense to me at first that Larry’s visit to the doctor should come so far apart from the receiving of the x-ray results which presumably spell death for him one way or another. Though I’m sure x-rays took a lot longer to develop/check in the ‘60s, the call from the doctor comes (crucially) right after Larry’s decided to keep the money Clive (the Korean kid) and his father have offered Larry to give Clive a passing grade (it comes, in fact, right as Larry writes the minus after Clive’s newly appointed C). To me this is the only point in the film where Larry truly goes against his morals (and in such a relatively frivolous manner, too, given all he’s been through), and the exact timing of the doctor’s phone call seems to suggest that only now is the cosmos truly turning against him.

In contrast to Larry is his son, who we see get his radio stolen in the opening, which also contains the money he owes the dope-dealing kid. Both son and father get one “miracle” in the movie, in my view: Larry’s son gets his by being able to successfully complete his bar mitzvah even though he’s super stoned (and by all accounts a crappy student), while Larry’s is the death of Sy Ableman. The latter may be a stretch (seeing as Larry has to foot the bill for his funeral), but during the bar mitzvah Larry’s wife both reveals some affection to Larry for the first time (perhaps suggesting they might patch things up), while tying up the mystery of who was sending the defamatory notes to Larry’s tenure committee (and also validating Larry as the truly “serious man” vis-à-vis Ableman).

Through a result of both of these “miracles”, Larry’s son gets his radio/$20 back, and Larry’s tenure (and perhaps even his marriage) seem likely to pull through. However, both Larry and his son waste these opportunities (Larry more pronouncedly in finally accepting the bribe [no more a serious man, and no better than Ableman, really], his son in continuing to be a bad student/ignoring Rabbi Marshak’s advice to be a good boy), and both have to face up to the consequences (in this case, death by terminal illness/tornado). Both of them fail to fulfill their higher moral obligations (Larry perhaps moreso, but in context his son fails just as much) by instead fulfilling temporary, material ones (bills to pay, pot money/a way to relieve boredom). God (or whoever) gave each of them a second chance, and they misunderstood their value/blew them. This, to me, explains the apocalyptic ending, which I find easier to swallow now having thought through it at length, though I found it unnecessarily abrupt/trivial at first. For all Larry’s struggles and good intentions, he cannot measure up when it counts most, and neither can his son, it would seem. It could all just be a cruel joke, of course (everybody dies eventually, whether we do bad or good), but I like to think there’s at least the possibility that the Coens are suggesting, as Larry says to Clive earlier, that actions do have consequences, however random the universe may seem at times (and particularly as it stands in this movie). By forgetting his own one true belief (and saving grace), Larry seals his fate. Perhaps his son will make it into the school's cellar and survive the tornado, but will he change his life for the better or just keep on wasting it?

Every single rabbi thrives on cultivating his own veneer of depth, but has little to offer a man who's faith is legitimately shaken. The final rabbi's Jefferson Airplane line-up recitation and quote is the punchline on this facet of the subtext. The trappings of his hermitage hint at a complex wisdom he doesn't seem to have. His advice is just to "Be good" while the entirety of the movie is about God's challenges to that ideal.

I can relate personally to the film, especially growing up as an atheist Jew, and I don't believe that my experience can be removed from my criticism of the film. I see A Serious Man as the Coens' most religious film. For me, I agree philosophically with No Country For Old Men more, but this film is structurally improved and has a definite powerhouse ending.

The final image of the tornado, God's wrath, forming on the horizon is chilling. In the story's obvious influence, Job is put through all of the worst trials by God, but he is rewarded when he will not renounce his faith. In A Serious Man, Larry Gopnik is put through similar hardships. After some of the hardships begin to fade, it appears as though there is a light at the end of the tunnel. His son gets Bar Mitzvah'ed, his antagonist is dead, and his marriage may be repaired.

The one last trouble is finances. Always money tempts us (same as in No Country) . All the hardships have worn on Larry, though. In the process, he lost his faith. Some of God's messengers can be unreliable (like the Junior Rabbi), but Larry was warned at the pool of all the gifts that God had supposedly bestowed on him. And yet he gives in.

He submits in the most innocuous way, but, symbolically, this is the loss of his faith in right and wrong, in the Cosmic Order of things. So God replies, "You think you had it bad before? Defy me, and I'll give you cancer and kill your eldest son."

This is an Old Testament god. This is a vengeful god. But, nonetheless, this is an affirmation that a god is still there. A stark difference from No Country's silent or non-existent god. With the quick cuts from Larry entering in a false grade on a student's report card to the phone call from his doctor to a tornado coming for Larry's son, there is no other explanation. This is simple cause-and-effect editing. This is not the sign of the "random acts" that the Coen brothers are being attributed.

Aside from the ending, which is bleak but spiritual, the film is filled with some great dark humor. Personally, I loved their take on the simultaneously tedious and horrifying ritual of the Bar Mitzvah. I'd be hard-pressed to find a more awkward and terrifying event in my own life, and that mood is recaptured here through the eyes of Larry's son and through the wonderfully exaggerated sound design.

Deakins's cinematography always frames Larry to be overwhelmed, framed-in, or just plain tiny. The man has been literally pushed into a corner. It's hard not to root for the guy. The narrative structure of Larry seeing each individual as a new test of faith is perfect for the Coens' style of emphasizing supporting roles. It also matters less that they offer minimal character depth in these roles because it is precisely the impact on Larry that matters most.

Overall, I found the film to be touching and funny. And while I disagree, philosophically, with the ending, it's hard not to see its power and resonance. I file this with The Virgin Spring, another film where the spiritual ending is a turn-off for me, but the film retains power despite my personal politics.