Falsani , the author of the book The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers, says that though the brothers’ films ”” full of violence and deceit ”” might not hew to traditional views of right and wrong, taken as a whole, they paint a clear picture.
“People say their worlds are chaotic, but I see a definite rhythm to good and bad,” Falsani says. “If you do something, there is an effect. When you make a choice and you make the wrong choice, you’re going to get it in their world. And then sometimes, as in the case of A Serious Man, even if you don’t make the wrong choice, you still might get it.”
Set in the Minnesota town where they grew up, in 1967 ”” the year that Joel would have made his bar mitzvah ”” A Serious Man is, according to Falsani, the Coen brothers’ most self-referential film, and also their most overtly religious.