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Hail, Caesar!, Joel and Ethan Coen’s latest adventure, takes us through a greatest hits tour of the bizarre Hollywood scandals that dominated the Studio Era. This is a film for people who enjoy watching old movies more than going to the theater every weekend to catch the latest blockbuster or Oscar bait, although it does try to say more about life than the movie industry itself.
The film is a day in the life of Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), a Hollywood “fixer” who takes his name from a real man who helped keep stars’ images polished for the studios. The Coens’ Eddie is a secretly religious man who works for Capital Pictures. One day, the studio’s biggest star, Baird Whitlock (George Clooney), is kidnapped by a group called The Future during the production of Hail, Caesar!. Mannix is tasked with keeping the story hush-hush and finding out where he is.
But there are other matters at hand around the studio. Singing cowboy Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich) is thrust into an Ernst Lubitsch-style, sophisticated comedy for director Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes). Swimming picture star DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson) is going to have a baby and has no idea who the father is. Oh, and not one, but both Thacker sisters (Tilda Swinton) are on the hunt for some true juicy gossip. Luckily for Mannix, he got a call from the Future.
With all these tangents going in a zillion directions during the first half of Hail, Caesar!, it certainly feels like the Coens are in way over their heads. But it does eventually become clear that the Coens are more interested in painting a portrait of Mannix than putting together a heist film about finding a missing movie star. George Clooney may have been front and center during the marketing campaign, but Josh Brolin’s character is the true glue holding it together and he’s what the film is really about.
By setting the film in the past, the Coens really get a chance to prove that the movie-making business can really be used as a backdrop to tell a story about figuring out your place in the universe. Mannix relishes his work, and you can see it in Brolin’s performance. Brolin has a droll wit hidden in him that the Coens have brought out once again, after working with him in No Country For Old Men and True Grit.
Although Hail, Caesar! isn’t actually made like an Old Hollywood picture when Mannix is off the set, the film does highlight some of the talents the directors share with their predecessors. The Coens have a knack for getting scene-stealing performances from actors in small roles. Tilda Swinton is hilarious as the dueling sisters and Frances McDormand might have the funniest scene in the movie as an editor. Channing Tatum doesn’t disappoint in his Gene Kelly-inspired song. And Alden Ehrenreich may have found his breakthrough role as the sympathetic cowboy.
Hail, Caesar! is not a perfect film. Despite running 100 minutes, scenes often drag too long and there are some gags that have worn thin after repeated use in trailers. (Specifically, the long scene between Fiennes and Ehrenreich was used in its entirety in a trailer.) It is also difficult to see how a wide audience would connect with a film that drops references to ‘50s movie stars as if we should be in on the joke. Hail, Caesar! isn’t completely hidden under movie jargon, but it certainly helps your enjoyment if you know ‘50s Hollywood.
However, when the script leaves behind references and the smokescreen of Hollywood glamor, Hail, Caesar! is actually another Coen character study, more along the lines of A Serious Man or Barton Fink, but much less serious and far less defined. If Mannix is the center, perhaps giving him only one big problem to solve would have resulted in a much better film. Hail, Caesar! is still harmless fun, but doesn’t feel as easily focused as the Coens’ best work.