Review! Hail, Caesar!

Hail, Caesar! (2016) Directed by Ethan Coen, Joel Coen. Starring: Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich. IMDB says “A Hollywood fixer in the 1950s works to keep the studio’s stars in line.”

“Would that it twere so simple…”

I should probably mention upfront that I don’t care for the Coen Brothers. I loved The Big Lebowski, quite enjoyed their version of True Grit, and I didn’t mind O Brother, Where Art Thou. But outside of that, thanks, but no thanks. I find most of their films to be unbearable and painfully unfunny. That being said, Hail, Caesar! left me feeling mixed. I enjoyed most of the film, in fact, it made me nostalgic for an era I’ve never lived through. But as the credits rolled, I sat in my seat feeling let down. The Coen Brothers had dusted off old school Hollywood, put it front and center, but wasted the film’s potential.

If you haven’t seen the trailers, Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) is a Hollywood studio fixer. If there’s a problem, go see Eddie and he’ll solve it. One day he’s told that movie legend Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) has been kidnapped and he needs to get a hundred thousand dollars together. While that’s going on, Eddie has to balance other problems the studio is facing along with a big personal decision. The film takes place during the course of a day and I think that ultimately hurts the film. With so many storylines being balanced, some of the resolutions feel hastily thrown together while others feel completely unnecessary. As we cycle through the stories, we also cycle through the cast. You’ll see Alison Pill for two minutes then never again, Jonah for three minutes then never again, Frances McDormand has maybe three lines then she’s gone, and then David Crumholtz pops up and you wonder why he’s even there. You never really connect with anyone and at times it feels like a revolving door of skit after skit. The main plot of Mannix searching for Whitlock is a masking tape that holds the film together but it still feels disconnected. The film just feels rushed and incomplete. You want to learn more about these characters and how they’re interconnected, but the Coens would rather sneak in vaudevillian style comedy and a choreographed swim number.

Don’t get me wrong; the film is funny. The jokes range from that of classic vaudeville to pure absurdity and they hit their mark on all kinds of intellectual levels. There is a wonderful song and dance number featuring Channing Tatum that harkens back to something we’d see Gene Kelly and Frank Sinatra or even Danny Kaye perform. Alden Ehrenreich nearly steals the film as Hobie Doyle, an actor who finds himself working for director Lawrence Laurents (Ralph Fiennes). The scenes they share are, to me, the highlight of the film. The style of the film is absolutely fantastic, not a detail was missed and at times the film felt like something out of the fifties rather than 2016. It just so happens that all of this style and panache can’t save the story. The reveal of who kidnapped Whitlock is very clever, but I feel the wit will be lost on those who don’t have a firm grasp on American history.

Maybe if the film was longer and delved deeper into the characters it introduces, it might have been more memorable. I just don’t see this film having the staying power like that of other Coen Brothers films. I wouldn’t rush out to theatres to catch this one.

FTS SCORE: 70%