Larry Gopnik
Larry is a professor of physics. He lives in St. Louis Park, Minnesota. He has two kids, Danny and Sarah, and his brother, Arthur lives on his couch. Larry is seeking tenure at his university while planning for Danny's Bar Mitzvah and in the midst of it ask his Rabbis for help. All things seem to fall apart for him along the way.
Judith
Judith is Larry's wife. She wants a divorce and needs a get from Larry. She's fallen in love with Sy Abelman, and even asks Larry to move out of the house until she and Sy are married.
Sy Abelman
Sy Abelman is a widower who's fallen in love with Judith, Larry's wife. He wants Larry to give them a get so they can be married. Sy deceives Judith and tells her he writes letters on behalf of Larry to the tenure board, when in reality he's writing the letters to make Larry look like an immoral person who shouldn't be tenured.
Mrs. Samsky
Mrs. Samsky is Larry's neighbor who he sees sunbathing naked one day. She gives him pot to smoke, which he does. And Larry dreams of having sex with her.
Danny
Danny is Larry and Judith's son who goes to Hebrew School. Danny owes a kid in his school money for marijuana, but he can't pay the kid because all his money is in the transistor radio that was taken from him by his teacher. Danny is preparing for his Bar Mitzvah and at the end of the film stares down a tornado heading the way of him and his classmates.
Uncle Arthur
Arthur is Larry's brother who lives with him at he and Judith's house. Arthur spends most of his time writing in his notebooks about probabilities of the universe. Arthur moves into a motel with Larry when Judith and Sy ask Larry to move out of the home. Arthur later faces charges of solicitation and sodomy, and has his lawyer bill sent to Larry.
