A seriously funny movie also has something to say

When things don't go right, it's best to laugh. You'll get the idea with "A Serious Man," the latest and somewhat autobiographical movie from the quirky, unpredictable Coen brothers.

With "A Serious Man," they return to the suburban Minneapolis environs of their youth - a region they haven't visited since "Fargo" (1996). While they claim the movie is not autobiographical, it is true that their father was a small-college professor who taught physics. The setting is 1967, which is when they were kids.

As a ticket buyer, though, you may not care about the Coen brothers' background. That's fine. You'll get a lot of universal human nature in "A Serious Man." You'll laugh - a lot. This movie is very funny, which doesn't mean it isn't also serious.

It is a dark comedy about a schlemiel who is markedly akin to the long-suffering Job of the Bible. Someone, whom I pestered, explained to me that a schlemiel is a guy who buys a suit with two pairs of pants and burns a hole in the coat - a bungler. Larry Gopnik's wife (Sari Lennick), a kind of bland, mirthless whiner, is leaving him to run off with Sy Ableman (Fred Melamed), who from all appearances is no real catch. Sy hugs Larry a lot and explains that it will all be fine, but he'd like Larry to move out of the house and into the local Jolly Roger Motel.

The two children are rotten messes. The daughter (Jessica McManus) chatters all the time and steals money from his wallet to save up for a nose job. The son, Danny (Aaron Wolff), complains about the TV reception and whether he can see "F Troop" clearly.

At school, Larry can cover the blackboard with brilliant physics equations, but his students have no idea, or care about, what he's saying.

A South Korean student offers him an envelope full of cash for a passing grade. Because he doesn't notice the money until later, he feels guilty about possessing it. The boy's father threatens to sue if the kid doesn't get a C.

Larry is up for tenure, but a pesky tenure committee-member hovers at his door to hint there may be trouble because someone is writing unflattering letters.

Larry's strange, middle-aged brother (Richard Kind) is sleeping on the couch and shows no sign of wanting to move. This is one of the factors in his wife wanting a divorce.

On top of everything else, the Columbia Record Club, an outfit he never heard of, is dunning him for bills for numerous records of the month (apparently ordered by the busy son, Danny).

He seeks help from the famous and wise Super Rabbi, but after a run-around he gets no more than a quotation from a Jefferson Airplane song. It's as if Hashem, God, is playing hide and seek and always wins by staying hidden.

The Coens use a talented team of actors drawn from theater. At the center of everything is Michael Stuhlbarg as Larry. He's a theater veteran making his major-movie debut.

Larry is the universal underdog. While there is nothing new about the character, there is a great deal that is clever in a deadpan sort of way about how the Coen brothers tease us with this material. It might help, but you don't have to be Jewish to appreciate what Larry Gopnik goes through. It's a little threatening, too.

While you're thinking about it, you'll laugh. A lot. It's a rare happening - laughing and thinking at the same time.

Mal Vincent, (757) 446-2347, mal.vincent@pilotonline.com