The Coens pay tribute to (and make fun of) Hollywood’s Golden Age.
By Jim Vejvoda
The Coen Bros.’ latest film is the showbiz send-up Hail, Caesar!. Set in early ’50s Hollywood, Capitol Pictures boss Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) is a fixer of problems, some major and some minor, an array of Hollywood headaches that range from wayward stars (Scarlett Johansson) to pesky gossip columnists (Tilda Swinton) to appeasing a veteran filmmaker (Ralph Fiennes) saddled (almost literally) with an unsuitable leading man (Alden Ehrenreich) he can’t fire.
The studio’s biggest movie of the year is the Biblical epic Hail, Caesar!, starring screen legend Baird Whitlock (George Clooney). It’s a hugely expensive, prestige picture, one that Eddie wants to make sure won’t offend Christians or Jews. Eddie’s ultimate problem to fix hits when Baird gets kidnapped from the Capitol backlot by a shady group seeking ransom. Finding out the who and why lends this otherwise screwy comedy a period-appropriate Film Noir element.
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With Hail, Caesar!, the perpetually subversive Coens may have actually subverted subversion by making their hero the suit who would be the villain in any other showbiz movie. In some ways, Hail, Caesar! is like the anti-Trumbo with its topsy-turvy take on the impending Red Scare and Hollywood Blacklist. This is mainly a story of contradictions and self-discovery, executed in a zany, cracked manner as only the Coens can do.
The movie boasts a stellar ensemble cast (more on them in a moment), but this is Josh Brolin’s movie. His Eddie Mannix is a good man often tasked with doing dirty jobs. He’s a loyal and relentless studio exec who only has the studio’s (and audience’s) best interests in mind even as he’s tempted by a handsome offer of a cushy new job in an entirely different industry.
Taking place over the course of a little over 24 hours, Eddie’s crisis of conscience is mirrored by the religious nature of Baird’s Roman warrior character in the movie-within the-movie Hail, Caesar! A Tale of the Christ (a direct nod to Ben-Hur, which has the same subtitle). Will Eddie see the light or will he stray from the path thanks to a false god? He takes the sins of his studio and its stars upon him, listens to their prayers for help, and ultimately renders judgment, forgiveness or retribution.
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Brolin receives fine support from the rest of the ensemble. The Coens’ veteran dimwit George Clooney plays another dunce here and he spends the entire movie in Baird’s Roman duds. However, the real show-stealer in Hail, Caesar! is Alden Ehrenreich who aces it as singing cowboy star Hobie Doyle, a young hick with a big heart but not much acting talent. The scene between Hobie — who has been forced to play the lead role in a drawing room drama way out of his league — and his exasperated director Laurence Laurentz (a superb Ralph Fiennes) is arguably the most hilarious scene in this very funny film.
Channing Tatum shines in his small but pivotal role as a Gene Kelly-esque song-and-dance man (his “No Dames!” number is an instant classic). Scarlett Johansson has a brief, but brassy role as the star of water ballets who has lousy taste in men off-screen, while Jonah Hill really isn’t deserving of a spot on the film’s poster given that his role is a one scene cameo (and memorable for no other reason that you remember his character’s name later on because, well, he was played by Jonah Hill). Faring better is the commanding Tilda Swinton, who chews the scenery in dual roles as sibling gossip columnists (and bitter rivals) haranguing Eddie for scoops.
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Some of the best parts in the film are the movies-with the-movie, from the titular Hail, Caesar! to Hobie’s cowboy flicks to the Esther Williams-inspired mermaid movie. Each movie looks and plays just like comparable films of that era. There’s a truth and heart to these Hollywood homages even if you will often laugh at their hokeyness.
Plot-wise, though, these sequences tend to pad out the film a bit more than necessary. The pacing and story also meanders a bit during the scenes between Baird and his kidnappers, and not all of the jokes and zany bits work as well as they could have.
Hail, Caesar! may not be one of the Coen Brothers’ finest efforts — and it might not engage viewers beyond Los Angeles or those who truly understand or work in the film industry — but it’s nevertheless a fun, charming, and oft-hilarious take on Hollywood’s Golden Age.
