A Serious Man Page #12

Larry

Look, something is very wrong! I don’t want Santana

Abraxis! I’ve just been in a terrible auto accident!

Beat.

Voice

I’m sorry sir. I’m sorry sir.

Larry

Well—thank you. But I—

Voice

Are you okay?

Larry

Yes. Yes, no one was hurt.

Voice

Okay. Good. Well, you had fourteen days to listen to

Santana Abraxis and return it if you weren’t completely

satisfied. You did nothing. And now you—

Larry

I didn’t ask for Santana Abraxis! I didn’t listen to Santana

Abraxis! I didn’t do anything!

The secretary is sticking her head in.

Secretary

Sir. . .

Voice

Sir. Please. We can’t make you listen to the record. We—

Secretary

Professor Gopnik, your son. He said it’s urgent.

Larry

Okay, look, I have to call you back, this is, this is—I’m

sorry.

He irritably punches a button on the bottom row of four.

. . . Danny?

Danny

Dad!

Larry

Did you join the Columbia Record Club?!

Silence.

. . . Danny?

Danny

Um. . .

Larry

Danny, this is completely unacceptable. I can’t afford to—

Danny

Okay Dad, but you gotta come home.

Larry

Is it F Troop?

Danny

Huh? No no. Mom’s real upset.

Did you join the Columbia Record Club?!

Silence.

. . . Danny?

Danny

Um. . .

Larry

Danny, this is completely unacceptable. I can’t afford to—

Danny

Okay Dad, but you gotta come home.

Larry

Is it F Troop?

Danny

Huh? No no. Mom’s real upset.

GOPNIK HOUSE:

Larry enters. We can hear weeping, semi-hysterical, from somewhere in the house.

Sarah’s Voice

. . . Dad?

Larry

Yes?

She enters.

Sarah

Does this mean I can’t go to The Hole tonight?

Larry

Does what mean—what happened?

Sarah

Sy Ableman died in a car crash.

Danny’s Voice

Hey Dad!

Larry

. . .

Danny’s Voice

Hey Dad!

Larry

. . . What?!

Danny enters.

Danny

So are you coming back home? Can you fix the aerial?

The weeping, off, grows louder and more hysterical.

Larry

What?!

Danny

It’s still, you know. . .

Loud wailing.

BLACK:

After a beat in black, a white title:

The Second Rabbi

RABBI’S OFFICE

We are close on Larry. He sits hunched forward, hands clasped in front of him, staring at

the floor, sadly shaking his head.

After a long beat:

Larry

It seems like she’s asking an awful lot. But then—I don’t

know. Somebody has to pay for Sy’s funeral.

Rabbi Nachtner, sitting opposite, nods.

Rabbi Nachtner

Uh-huh. Uh-huh.

Larry

His own estate is in probate. But why does it have to be

me? Or is it wrong to complain? Judy says it is. But I’m

so strapped for cash right now—paying for the Jolly Roger,

and I wrecked the car, and Danny’s bar mitzvah. . . I. . .

Rabbi Nachtner

Something like this—there’s never a good time.

Larry

I don’t know where it all leaves me. Sy’s death. Obviously

it’s not going to go back like it was.

Rabbi Nachtner

Mm. Would you even want that, Larry?

Larry

No, I—well yeah! Sometimes! Or—I don’t know; I guess

the honest answer is I don’t know. What was my life

before? Not what I thought it was. What does it all mean?

What is Hashem trying to tell me, making me pay for Sy

Ableman’s funeral?

Rabbi Nachtner

Mm.

Larry

And—did I tell you I had a car accident the same time Sy

had his? The same instant, for all I know. Is Hashem

telling me that Sy Ableman is me, or we are all one, or

something?

Rabbi Nachtner

How does God speak to us: it’s a good question. You

know Lee Sussman?

Larry

Doctor Sussman? I think I—yeah?

Rabbi Nachtner

Did he ever tell you about the goy’s teeth?

Larry

No. . . I—What goy?

Rabbi Nachtner

So Lee is at work one day; you know he has the orthodontic

practice there at Texa-Tonka.

Larry

Uh-huh.

Rabbi Nachtner

Larry

No. . . I—What goy?

Rabbi Nachtner

So Lee is at work one day; you know he has the orthodontic

practice there at Texa-Tonka.

Larry

Uh-huh.

Rabbi Nachtner

Right next to the Gold Eagle Cleaners.

We cut to:

SIGN FOR THE GOLD EAGLE CLEANERS

It dominates a small suburban strip mall.

Rabbi Nachtner continues in voice-over as we cut to a frosted glass door with a painted-

on “Leon Sussman, DDS.”

Rabbi Nachtner

He’s making a plaster mold—it’s for corrective bridge

work—in the mouth of one of his patients. . .

A close shot of a man’s mouth biting down on two horse-shoe shaped troughs—an upper

and a lower—that overflow goo.

. . . Russell Kraus. He’s a delivery dispatcher for the Star

and Tribune with chronic mandibular deterioration.

The grinding guitar solo from Jefferson Airplane’s “Bear Melt” scores the narrative.

The patient opens his mouth as a hand enters to grab the upper tray.

The reverse shows Dr. Sussman, a middle-aged man dressed in the the high-collared

white smock of an oral surgeon. He takes the mold to a drying table.

Kraus is twisted over the side of the chair spitting into the water-swirled spit-sink.

. . . Well, the mold dries and Lee is examining it one day ining it one day

before fabricating an appliance. . . .

Another day:
Dr. Sussman sits at his workbench examining the lower mold. He notices

something unusual.

. . . He notices something unusual.

Sussman reaches up for the loupe attached to his eyeglasses.

There seems to be something engraved on the inside of the

patient’s lower incisors. . .

He flips down the loupe. One eye is hugely magnified as he stares.

. . . Sure enough, it’s writing.

Sussman squints.

His point-of-view: Tiny incised Hebrew letters:

Back to Rabbi Nachtner: he confirms with a nod.

Rabbi Nachtner

This in a goy’s mouth, Larry.

Back to Leon Sussman: the rabbi’s narrative continues.

Rabbi Nachtner

Hey vav shin yud ayin nun yud. “Hoshiyani.” “Help me.”

“Save me.”

Sussman flips the loupe away and looks off, haunted. He rises.

. . . He checks the mold, just to be sure. Oh, it’s there all

right. . .

A dental mirror is dipped into the horse-shoe-shaped hardened paste of the mold. It pans

tiny letters that stand out in relief, right-side around in the mirror:

Sussman leans back, thinking.

He calls the goy back on the pretense of needing additional

measurements for the appliance.

Close on Kraus grinning as he shakes Sussman’s hand in the reception area. Sussman

gestures to invite Kraus back to the examination room.

Sussman chats, affecting nonchalance.

In the examination room, leaning over Kraus in the chair, the dentist is indeed chatting

with apparent casualness.

Notice any other problems with your teeth? Anything

peculiar, et cetera?

Sussman unpockets a dental mirror.

No. No. No. Visited any other dentist recently? No.

He dips the mirror into Kraus’s mouth:

He calls the goy back on the pretense of needing additional

measurements for the appliance.

Close on Kraus grinning as he shakes Sussman’s hand in the reception area. Sussman

gestures to invite Kraus back to the examination room.

Sussman chats, affecting nonchalance.

In the examination room, leaning over Kraus in the chair, the dentist is indeed chatting

with apparent casualness.

Notice any other problems with your teeth? Anything

peculiar, et cetera?

Sussman unpockets a dental mirror.

No. No. No. Visited any other dentist recently? No.

He dips the mirror into Kraus’s mouth:

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