Hail, Caesar! (2016) (English Language)

Review

106min

Genre:      Comedy, Drama

Directors:  Ethan Coen, Joel Coen

Cast:        Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Scarlett Johansson…and more

Writers:    Joel Coen, Ethan Coen

-Synopsis-

An all-star cast assembles for this Coen Brothers golden-age Hollywood period comedy revolving around a big Hollywood producer, trying to keep the studio on track while searching for his biggest star who’s been kidnapped under mysterious circumstances.

A moderately layered quirky madcap character comedy, ‘Hail, Caesar!’ is the Coen Brothers love letter to the late “Golden Age Hollywood” era in the 1950s, with its larger-than-life players and industrial movie-making system… as opposed to our 21st century industrial studio system.

‘Hail, Caesar!’ at its heart is a comedic cavalcade of wacky characters who are exaggerations of larger-than-life personalities of a bygone era, some of whom may be vaguely familiar to cinephiles and film historians. Big egos brought to the big screen by a calibre of ensemble cast which very few directors can attract, from the likes of George Clooney and Ralph Fiennes to Scarlett Johansson and Tilda Swinton.

Perhaps too impressive of a cast for the narrative; with generally little screen time, most of the characters are set up for no great payoff and never really get the chance to shine. Apart from young Alden Ehrenreich who steals the show, only Josh Brolin really gets to flesh out a character in the central role of Eddie Mannix, the powerful Hollywood “fixer” who puts out Tinseltown fires for the film studio.

With the likes of cinematographer Roger Deakins involved, ‘Hail, Caesar!’ is unsurprisingly a beautiful looking film which features a confident but inconsistent silly comedic tone and a subtext of, among other things, the struggle with power and authority.

But the characters are just not quirky enough and the comedy not abundant enough to make up for a narrative that seems like a collection of disjointed character vignettes and a core story which fizzles out into insignificance.

For all the style and panache, and despite what it reflects of a simpler time and tries to say about society; ‘Hail, Caesar!’ feels like a well produced classic Hollywood variety show, packed with impromptu dance sequences and musical numbers, but less than we’ve come to expect from its creators.

The Bottom Line…

Despite a wavering comedic tone and its overstuffed and faltering narrative, this is still a film from two of the most original and creative filmmaking talents in recent history, and as such there’s plenty of entertainment in this breezy but subtly layered farce.

But when you get past the allure of quirky characters, slick production and “classic Hollywood” references, ‘Hail, Caesar!’ is one of the more insubstantial and forgettable Coen Brothers offerings.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Similar films you may like (Home Video)

Barton Fink (1991)

Dark surreal comedy following a New York playwright as he struggles to make it as a movie screen writer, while discovering the seedy reality behind the glitz & glamour of “Golden Age” Hollywood in this unique product from the brilliant minds of the Coen Brothers.

Directed by  Joel Coen & Ethan Coen and starring John Turturro, John Goodman and Judy Davis among others.

Comments

comments

Comments are closed.