Analysis / A Serious Man

• Central Theme:
  • Uncertainty, usually represented by Schrödinger's-Cat-style dualisms:
    • Schrödinger's Cat is discussed literally in the film since Larry is a physics teacher
    • Larry's marriage is in completely the opposite state to what he thought it was.
    • The argument with Mr Park about how Larry both is and isn't being bribed.
    Mr. Park: Please. Accept the mystery.
    • Groshkover at the start of the film is perhaps alive and perhaps dead.
    • Larry at the end of the film, and his son Danny too, are both perhaps just discovering how they're going to die, but the movie ends before we know for sure.
  • Religious uncertainty.
    • Three rabbis give increasingly incomprehensible teachings to Larry and his family.
    • Larry and his brother Arthur both feel personally abandoned and confounded by god.
    • Larry's wife Judith and her boyfriend Sy are both confident that their love is in accordance with god's wishes and should be treated as such, regardless of how Larry feels about it.