No big name stars, depressing subject matter, disaster around every corner. The Coen brothers' "A Serious Man" has a lot in common with this year's best picture Oscar champ, "The Hurt Locker."
Though they didn't win, the Coens can console themselves on a couple of counts. Their suburban farce's worldwide gross ($24 million) beats the war movie's ($21 million). At Friday's Film Independent Spirit Awards, "A Serious man" won the Robert Altman Award presented to the movie with the best ensemble case. The film also earned the cinematography award for Roger Deakins. How many Spirit Awards did "The Hurt Locker" win? Zero. The Coens gave best actor winner Jeff Bridges his career-defining role in their 1998 comedy "The Big Lebowski," surely a warm-up for his boozy lovable loser in "Crazy Heart." His acceptance speech, a rambling emission of "groovys" and "mans" sounded like he was channeling the Dude. And Ethan Coen got the funniest photo op of the evening. Hosts Steve Martin and Alex Baldwin noted that best supporting actor Christoph Waltz played a Nazi character known as "The Jew Hunter." "Well," said Martin, indicating the audience with a sweep of his arm, "tonight he's hit the motherload." The Oscarcast flashed a cutaway closeup of Ethan Coen in the audience, smiling. As if that's not enough, "A Serious Man" won Premiere.com's Golden Trailer Award, an Internet-based public poll honoring the best trailer for a best picture nominee. Of course it did: So there.
