In Hail Caesar! co-directors Joel and Ethan Coen lean fairly hard on silliness. In what amounts to a simultaneous spoof of, and tribute to the Studio Era of Hollywood, the Coens provide commendable optics of splendid cinematography and surefire editing. Their presentation of a 27-hour trajectory of a day-in-the-life of studio “fixer” Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) often amuses while ultimately wearing thin.
Set alongside a kidnapping plot where studio star Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) gets snatched by a group of communist Hollywood screenwriters calling themselves “The Future,” Hail Caesar! is on solid ground when replicating musical and comic scenes from Hollywood’s heyday. Adding just enough exaggeration, here’s Channing Tatum as a song-and-dance man leading a group of sailors on a “we’re sailing off and we’ll sure miss all the dames” tap-dancing number replete with beer bottles that seem to have a mind of their own. And there’s chipper Scarlet Johansson in a mermaid costume doing a water scene with Busby Berekeley-style choreography, only to finish and morph into a nasty trash-talking ingrate who loves talking back to Mannix. Side plots of Mannix being wooed for a job by Lockheed, and trying to quit smoking while showing up daily for Catholic confessions, however, further drag the film’s momentum.
Clooney is a hoot playing a Whitlock who mugs his lines while filming the full-of-hot-air biblical epic (also called “Hail Caesar!”) that is being shot at the unnamed studio which resembles MGM. It’s after Whitlock gets kidnapped that the film falters.
The screenwriters possess little believability, so what satire is intended drags more than zings. Their preposterous fate seems more like a bad joke than a terribly clever one. At this point I longed for more of Johansson’s character, DeeAnna Moran. Unfortunately, the outcome of her-out-of-wedlock pregnancy that jolts the PR-conscious studio also leaves a lot be desired. Her promising presence in the film seems unduly abridged and stilted.
Brolin manages to somewhat save the day. His self-assured Mannix keeps the studio running smoothly by means of coercion, bribery, and smooth-talking, the latter of which is ably demonstrated with his handling of twin gossip columnists, both wonderfully played by the irrepressible Tilda Swinton. Just when it’s tempting to grant Swinton the best supporting role in a film full of big name actors, Frances McDormand shows up as an old-school film editor who encounters a hilariously strange turn of events. With acting talent this good, this film should have been better.
Witty But Wearying Look at The Dream Factory….3 stars (out of 5)