A Serious Man

1967. Mild-mannered Larry Gopnik, living in suburban Minneapolis with his wife Judith and their two children, teenage Sarah and preteen Danny, is a Physics professor at a local college. Larry lets life wash over him, especially as it has not placed any major bumps along the way, with a few upcoming perks being that he is on a tenure track, the decision to be made soon, the deliberation by the tenure committee which he is assured is only a formality, and Danny will soon have his bar mitzvah. Minor bumps include Sarah and Danny constantly being at each other's throats, especially about money, all three of his family members treating him more as a fixture than a husband or father, and his unemployed mathematician brother Arthur living with them, sleeping on the sofa in their already-crowded house. Larry doesn't realize that Danny is more interested in listening to Jefferson Airplane and smoking weed than he is in his Hebrew studies for the bar mitzvah. Larry believes that his Jewish faith will keep him safe. However, things slowly go off the rails for Larry. Judith falls in love with their mutual friend, effete widower Sy Ableman, and asks for a divorce; she wants absolutely everything in the settlement, leaving Larry in a financial bind. Larry is having problems with a South Korean exchange student named Clive, who might be bribing him for a passing grade. Although he is further assured that they are not an issue, he learns that someone is sending poison-pen letters about him to the tenure committee, most probably Clive in what seems to be his campaign to get a good grade or else. Their neighbor Brandt is slowly encroaching on their property. Someone has signed him up with the Columbia House record club which is now hounding him to pay for records he never ordered or received. Arthur get into some problems with the law. One distraction are his new neighbors, the Samskys; voluptuous Mrs. Samsky has a penchant for sunbathing nude in their back yard. Larry looks for some answers to all these problems, especially from his faith. He wants to speak most specifically to Rabbi Marshak, the senior rabbi at his synagogue, who is now more a figurehead, so even trying to see him is difficult.