A Serious Man/YMMV


 * Big Lipped Alligator Moment: The film opens up with the story of a Jewish couple and a rabbi who may or may not be a dybbuk (a reanimated spirit in Judaism). This is not mentioned again afterwards; it's supposed to give a demonstration of the film's conflicts (faith vs. reason, etc.).

You could count most of the film as one of these: it's a kaleidoscope of angst-ridden Jewish whimsy. It's the accumulative effect of the recurring verbal symbolism (including the first scene) that gives the film depth. At a shallow glance it just seems like one utterly random scene after another, doubly so for the dream sequences.
 * Fridge Brilliance:
 * Doubles as Viewers Are Geniuses.
 * As discussed here, excluding the prologue, the first and second half of the film are reflections of one another.
 * Nightmare Fuel:
 * Despite the absence of random acts of violence or Ax Crazy Complete Monsters, this is still arguably one of the scariest of the Coens' films due to its thematic implications: bad things happening to good people for no reason, and the suggestion of a God who is both merciless and utterly incomprehensible.
 * To a lesser extent, the prologue. Though nothing openly frightening happens, it's left a lot of viewers (including this troper) very uneasy.
 * Role Association:
 * One of the rabbis Larry consults is Wolowitz / Moist.
 * Larry's brother is Mr. Korman the hypochondriac. He's also Paul Lassiter in Spin City!
 * Another one of the rabbis is Colonel Sanders!
 * Reb Groshkover from the opening is Douglas Wambaugh.