Hail, Caesar! Review

7 out of 10

Cast:

Josh Brolin as Eddie Mannix

George Clooney as Baird Whitlock

Alden Ehrenreich as Hobie Doyle

Ralph Fiennes as Laurence Laurentz

Scarlett Johansson as DeeAnna Moran

Tilda Swinton as Thora Thacker / Thessaly Thacker

Frances McDormand as C. C. Calhoun

Channing Tatum as Burt Gurney

Jonah Hill as Joseph Silverman

Veronica Osorio as Carlotta Valdez

Heather Goldenhersh as Natalie

Christopher Lambert as Arne Seslum

Directed by Joel and Ethan Coen

Hail, Caesar! Review:

“Hail, Caesar!” is a fun love letter to cinema by the Coen brothers. Great performances by Alden Ehrenreich and Channing Tatum bring a lot of laughs, but the film does have pacing issues.

Story:

In the 1950s, Eddie Mannix is an executive and “fixer” at Capitol Pictures. While it may seem a glitzy and glamorous job, it’s also a challenging one. His wholesome star DeeAnna Moran is pregnant out of wedlock. His Western star Hobie Doyle is being forced into a new genre of films and he can’t handle the dialogue with his thick Southern accent. He’s being stalked by gossip columnist Thora Thacker and her sister Thessaly Thacker. He’s also being courted to leave Hollywood altogether and join Lockheed. 

But amid this chaos, his greatest crisis arises. The star of his biblical epoch, Baird Whitlock, has been kidnapped. With the picture “Hail, Caesar!” now in jeopardy, Mannix must continue to juggle this band of misfits and save the studio.

Hail, Caesar! is rated PG-13 for some suggestive content and smoking.

What Worked:

If you are a fan of movies, especially those from Hollywood’s golden age, then you’re going to really enjoy Hail, Caesar!. The Coen brothers faithfully recreate several genres of film that we just don’t see anymore. We see George Clooney in a Ben-Hur or Spartacus-style biblical drama. Scarlett Johansson is seen in an Ester Williams-style synchronized swimming musical. Alden Ehrenreich appears in a Roy Rogers-type of Western. Then you see Channing Tatum mimicking Gene Kelly as a singing and dancing sailor in a musical. They’re all done very much tongue in cheek and humorously, yet 100% faithful at the same time. They’re so spot-on, you can tell they were recreated with a lot of love.

While movie-related humor is a big part of this film, the Coens’ wit is seen in other aspects of the story. There’s a funny scene where Mannix tries to get a rabbi, a Catholic priest, a Protestant minister, and an Orthodox priest to give him feedback on the script of “Hail, Caesar!”. What ensues is a hilarious debate on the nature of Jesus, God, and religion in general. In another scene, Mannix and his lawyers cook up a scheme to hide DeeAnna Moran’s pregnancy… by having her adopt her own child. A brilliant indictment of lawyers, the California legal system, and the public’s view on morals follows and it’s amusing to watch. The entire film is peppered with these fun moments that only the Coen brothers could deliver.

The Coen brothers take a bold step in making Josh Brolin as Eddie Mannix the hero. Studio executives are typically depicted as villains or slimy individuals, yet Mannix in this story is a genuinely good guy. He’s faithful to his wife and kids (unlike the real-world Eddie Mannix), he’s constantly in confession at church, he’s loyal to his employees, and he genuinely loves movies. Yeah, he slaps an actor or actress around, but I think the audience agrees that the character needs it at that point. So when he is faced with one crisis after another in the film and on the verge of quitting, you’re sympathetic with him and rooting for him to press on. It’s a very different role for Brolin but a fun one.

The entire cast in Hail, Caesar! is excellent. Clooney and Johansson are fantastic as you’d expect, but a surprising standout is Alden Ehrenreich as Hobie Doyle. This is a breakout role for the actor as the kind-hearted cowboy. A scene between him and Ralph Fiennes as Laurence Laurentz is a highlight of the film. Doyle finds himself snatched from the world of singing cowboys and placed on the set of a metropolitan ballroom picture. Laurentz, ever the polite Brit, is on the verge of losing it as he unsuccessfully attempts to get Doyle to deliver his lines without a Southern twang. It got great laughs from the audience and the final resolution of the scene later in the film drew the biggest laugh from the audience I was with. Also noteworthy is Channing Tatum as Burt Gurney. We already knew he could sing and dance, but he brings the house down in a musical number here. As you watch this movie, you’ll see a parade of familiar faces among the supporting characters. You see Wayne Knight, David Krumholtz, Jonah Hill, and more. But you’ll also see Christopher Lambert and Clancy Brown. Yes, there’s a mini-Highlander reunion in a Coen brothers movie. Who would have expected it?

What Didn’t Work:

While this film has a lot of great humor, it is definitely weighted towards movie-related humor. And that makes me wonder how it will play with general audiences who aren’t as familiar with the golden age of cinema. If you aren’t familiar with classic musicals or Westerns or biblical epochs or Communist scares, is this going to be as funny to you? We’ll see.

Hail, Caesar! also takes a while to ramp up. The laughs don’t really get rolling until well into the movie. Because of this slow pace, audiences may mentally check out earlier. The pacing is an issue as the film has a weak opening, a strong middle, and then a weak final act. I probably could have walked out on the last half hour and not missed much.

Hail, Caesar! is a funny movie, but there are really only a couple of laugh-out-loud moments. Most of it is mildly amusing or charming. If you were expecting something more than a smirk, you may be disappointed.

The Bottom Line:

If you’re a Coen brothers fan, this is well worth checking out in theaters. It’s so different from their other films from the last 10 years, fans may welcome the change in pace. Even if you’re not a diehard Coen fan, Hail, Caesar! is still worth checking out at least on TV down the road.