Burn after reading'.We all need to switch our brain to Coen brother movie mode while watching their movies.The story is simple. A professor of mathematics who always do right things, live in life in routines, tries to be a serious man until one day that his wife wants to divorce. He can solve complex problems of mathematics but can't figure out why his wife all the sudden wants to leave him... And people's suggestions to him is to talk to Rabbi.
The structure of the movie is one of the interesting part. It starts with a Jewish folklore in Hebrew about a husband met this old man on the road and invited him home. But his wife heard that this guy was dead so she did futile things trying to find out if he is dybbuk* or not. Then the movie officially begins after...
There's always message that Coen brothers trying to send through the movies. However, when I saw their names showing on the screen and the ending theme started, I had no idea what the message is.
Then I think more and reviewed a little bit. There's one part in movie I found it very important.
It's when the Korean student sitting in Larry's office trying to tell him that he can not fail him for the midterm cuz he needs it for his physics scholarship. If he doesn't pass math, he will not get the scholarship and he will feel shame.
And Larry told him...
'You can't really understand the physics without understanding the math.
The math tells how it really works, that's the real thing.
The story I give you in class is just illustrative.
They're like fables, say, to help give you a picture.
I mean... Even I don't understand the dead cat. The math is how it really works.'
That's the key of the movie.
The visits of the Rabbis to find out what's the answer for the problem he is facing is using his match brain and attitude to handle his world. But when it comes about life, we need to switch our brains to physics way of thinking to know that things around the world sometimes could be totally random. Lots phenomenon doesn't have only one or any answer to explain.
Then while he changed the score of the Korean student to C- in the end, he got a phone call from his doctor about his x-ray result. Will you say that's Karma or just another random thing happens in life?
Like a lot of questions we would have in life, we don't know. And we probably will never know the answer or if there's one.
In the end, it's just like the fable in the beginning of the movie, nobody knows for sure if the guy is a dybbuk* or not.
Coen brothers didn't just give you an answer to believe. Instead, they just remind you and show you in a humorous way, 'Hey, this is life we are talking about...' with their special way of humour. I would say that's kinda humble. They didn't think they are that great to define anything that nobody could give answers in the real life. I respect that and think this is the best part about movie and any arts... to pass a message to the crowd and to cause thoughts or effects afterwards... like butterfly effects... bigger and bigger...
*dybbuk: In Jewish folklore, a dybbuk is a malicious possessing spirit, believed to be the dislocated soul of a dead person
