This isn’t as straightforward as it sounds at first. Ultimately, this is the Coens’ twisted, dark, comic version of the basic structure of a parable. As the movie develops into a dystopia, flipping the normal world upside down, and themes of uncertainty and religion float about, we start seeing the Coens—scalpel ready—developing a revealing autopsy on organized religion and its actual purpose.

Comically, irony drives the movie from the beginning. A list of unknown actors shoots out at the screen with quick swooshes and pounding tympanis exploding in Dolby surround sound, or crooked Dutch angles—which are supposed to build tension—actually mock the lack of tension in a given scene.

Frequently, anticipation is reversed or let down. In this way, the movie is comedic in the sense of “Barton Fink” or “The Man Who Wasn’t There” —it’s elusive and doesn’t beg for the audience to see it as a comedy. As it seems, the movie just happens to be funny, and pretty often at that.

As a critique of organized religion, it’s pretty bleak and dismal—but hey, sometimes so is organized religion. Aside from all the upside-down crucifixions and deaths by lions, by the way that religion offers people a “clearer” way of seeing the world or living in it, these same people end up with a feeling of loss when they feel that the state of nature is completely against them. When parallels and connections, in the end, have no ground or feel incomplete, an air of confusion and anger arises in people. For me, this frustration happened at the end of “A Serious Man,” but I found myself laughing the next day because I didn’t notice the intricate design of this Swiss clock of a movie that the Coens have designed.

Enough critics have said this, but not necessarily in a negative light: The Coens are one of the few auteurs of cinema left, along with Wes Anderson and Sam Raimi. However, as much as I enjoy their movies, the Coens’ films have become almost formulaic. As much as I respect the technical wonder of some of their films, including this one, their movies are becoming too “Coen”: anyone experienced with their movies won’t be surprised by the way “A Serious Man” ends, how the characters mumble or what philosophical concerns will abound. They ride a fine line as they do it in this movie; but if they try to push this boundary any further, their films will surely not be able to hold a structure any longer.

Indeed, the Coens are known for having a divisive, love-it-or-hate-it reception from critics and audiences, but this is definitely one of their most immediately enjoyable films… not that mainstream America will buy into it. Some may have walked out of “Fink” or “No Country for Old Men” desiring more until they saw it a second time—and may have still not enjoyed it—but this movie does not need a second watch to offer an intense joy to the audience. If anything, “A Serious Man” is another “Blood Simple.” Both movies find complexity in their simplicity, and the epiphanies at the end of both movies are pretty similar: that big gray world out there is pretty damn complicated—and more so than it really needs to be.

Just as Woody Allen in “Hannah and Her Sisters” finds more solace in the Marx Brothers—or “Duck Soup” in particular—the Coens find more religious comfort in Jefferson Airplane—particularly “Somebody to Love,” which is a nice, touching motif in the movie. The beauty is in the words of the song, the timbre of Grace Slick’s voice, and the final images of the film, which are some of the most gorgeous cinematic moments of the year.