"Hail, Caesar!" Review

Title: Hail, Caesar!

Directed by: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Screenplay by: Joel Coen and Ethan Coen

Year: 2016


I am not what you would call a big fan of the Coen Brothers. I have only seen a few of their films and, as such, I have not formed a solid opinion on their quality as filmmakers. But then I saw the trailer for Hail, Caesar! and I became very excited for this film. I absolutely loved everything about this trailer; the music, the style, the setting, the cast, the editing. The trailer floored me and completely sold me on this picture. So I went into the film with very high expectations. Did the movie exceed, meet, or fall short of them?

Hail, Caesar! shows us a day in the life of Eddie Mannix, a studio fixer for Captiol Pictures. His job is very hectic but things take a turn for the worse when Baird Whitlock, the star of the studio's next major picture, has been kidnapped for ransom. Now Mannix must rescue Whitlock while simultaneously keeping the situation a secret and making sure the studio does not fall apart in the process.

One of the main drawing points of this film is the cast. This is an exceptionally talented ensemble. Josh Brolin leads this all star cast and he is absolutely phenomenal. His performance is powerful and magnetic, as it immediately engages the audience. Brolin makes for a fantastic lead. George Clooney plays the odd but charismatic Baird Whitlock and he is fantastic. The character plays to Clooney's strengths and he seems to be having a really good time exercising his comedic abilities. One of the standout performances comes from the relatively unknown Alden Ehrenreich. If this movie is any indication, this young actor has a long career ahead of him. Ehrenreich is a scene stealer and he proves that he can stand against acting heavyweights such as Brolin and Ralph Fiennes.

Speaking of Ralph Fiennes, he is perfectly cast as a snooty, bitter director. Fiennes is certainly in his element here and his sour manner makes for some great laughs. Scarlett Johansson does a great job as well, lending her voice to a typical 1950s New York accent. Her character is very independent and is even involved in a scandal, and Johansson seems to be having a ball playing her. Tilda Swinton and Frances McDormand do not have a lot of screen time, but they get the job done rather well. Channing Tatum continues to impress and improve as an actor. He has an incredible song and dance number and he just gets better with every film.

Now, Jonah Hill in this movie...leaves much to be desired. But it is not a result of his performance. Hill only has about four or five lines total. His part in the movie is essentially a cameo. This truly feels like a bait and switch. The trailer billed him above half the cast, of which all of them have more screen time than he does. As for his performance, there is not much I can say about it. He delivers his lines well, and the scene itself is hysterical, but I am really surprised this was in the marketing. I feel my outlook on this scene would have been completely different if his involvement in the film was kept as a secret. Could you imagine watching this film and then out of nowhere comes Jonah Hill for this one scene? That would have been genius, and I would have been talking about it in a positive light.

Stepping away from the cast and into the story, we have a main plot and numerous sub-plots. Again, the trailer misrepresented the movie quite a bit in this regard. Based on the marketing, I thought the film would have all of these colorful characters come together in different capacities to rescue Whitlock from his kidnappers. But that is not the case. Instead, the film treats Mannix as the focal point of the picture with all of the sub-plots revolving around him. Whitlock is kidnapped so it is his job to rescue him. Mannix assigns Hobie Doyle (Ehrenreich) to Laurence Lorenz's (Fiennes) film, which does not go over so well. DeeAnna Moran (Johansson) is involved in a bit of a scandal that Mannix must fix. Those are but a few of the plot threads in this film, which is structured more as a set of vignettes that occasionally intertwine and all involve Mannix.

The film attempts to juggle all of these storylines while continually progressing a main narrative and, sadly, it stumbles in this area. The main issue with Hail, Caesar! is its lack of focus. It is actually very difficult to point out the main story. You could definitely argue it is the kidnapping of Baird Whitlock, but the way it is treated in the film makes it seem less significant than it should have been. This lack of focus also stems from the editing room. The transitions in this film often feel very weak, with scenes that have no correlation with one another being paired. I felt the transitions that worked the best were the ones that included the narration. It allowed for a comfortable segue as it set the stage for what was to come, and it made a huge difference.

Having said all of that, I pretty much love everything else this film has to offer. The production design for Hail, Caesar! is impeccable. You feel as if you have been transported back to 1950s Hollywood and that is a glorious feeling. The color composition is beautiful and makes for an eye popping pleasure. The sets are well realized and utterly gorgeous. The film sometimes deviates from the narrative to present us segments from the films within the movie. Examples include an incredibly well choreographed and well shot synchronized swimming sequence and a musical number taking place in a bar. Normally, this would come across as a negative since they have little bearing on the plot, but these scenes have so much effort, love, and care crammed into them that it is hard not admire them. Not to mention that they are vastly entertaining.

I mentioned earlier how the editing was hit and miss. Well, there is one scene where the editing team knocks it out of the ballpark. The scene with Frances McDormand in the editing room (coincidence?) is cut together with the fast pace editing and extreme close ups that won Whiplash the Oscar not too long ago. It makes it seem like each branch of the film industry is its own world, and I like that idea very much.

This film was also marketed as a comedy, and thankfully, it delivers on that front. The film does not always take itself seriously but at the same time it is not a straight-up comedy. There are plenty of scenes that will leave the audience in stitches. One of the highlights of the film is when Eddie Mannix brings on four officials of different religions to get their approval on the studio's film Hail, Caesar! and their depiction of Christ in the picture. This scene is comedy gold. The interplay between the characters is some of the funniest stuff I have seen in years. Anything having to do with Ralph Fiennes is delightfully hilarious, George Clooney has some funny bits as he gets to know his kidnappers, it is all great stuff.

The Coen brothers love making films, as is obvious from pretty much everything on display in this movie. Their direction is solid and they know how to make classic Hollywood come to life. This definitely comes across as a passion project and their adoration for this topic is one of the key factors that leads to this film's success. I almost forgot to mention the music in this film. I said earlier that the narrative lacks focus, which leads to the film having several different tones. Luckily, the score is able match each of these tones. There are songs that scream old school jazz, embody western folk songs, capture the essence of film noir, and even correlate with a religious theme.

Hail, Caesar! did not meet my expectations, unfortunately. Maybe it is because I had such high hopes for it, but I feel that if the script had been revised a little more, this could have been a genuine masterpiece. It is all there, but the script is what bogs this film down, not too much though. The performances all around are captivating and entertaining, there are plenty of laughs to be had, and the work behind the camera is in its own league of quality. The ones who will get the most out of this picture are people who are very familiar with the film industry and how it works. There are many jokes that will go over the average moviegoer's head. For instance, there is a point in the film where a character, who is known for starring in westerns, plays with his spaghetti, using it as a lasso. That is a play on spaghetti westerns. There are plenty of clever jokes like that sprinkled throughout the film, but not everyone will understand them. I had a really fun time watching this film despite its structural issues. Even though I really enjoyed it, I will always wonder how this film would have turned out if the filmmakers had a better lock on the narrative.

Grade: B+