ABSTRACT
In the lm A Serious Man, aside from the main protagonist, Larry Gopnik, viewers also get involved in the story of his brother, Arthur. roughout the lm Arthur is obsessively writing a manuscript called the “Mentaculus”, but when we nally nd out what it is, it turns out to be some kind of mad Kabbalistic cipher. Larry, the brother and main protaganist in the lm, explains what it is to his friend Mimi: “e Mentaculus? He says it’s a, uh … a probability map. Of the universe. He asked if I could help him publish it. Um, it was a little hard for me to evaluate” (Coen and Coen 2009: 63).
