Joel and Ethan Coen’s “Hail, Caesar!” thrives on its own weirdness, which ultimately is both a strength and a weakness of the movie. Following actors and other movie hotshots in 1950s Hollywood, the film imitates a culture rife with scandal and stupidity. It portrays the shallowness and spectacle of the industry by itself being a shallow spectacle.
Josh Brolin plays Eddie Mannix, a movie “fixer” working to keep actors’ sleazy personal lives out of the press. Word reaches him that star Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) has been abducted from the movie studio in the middle of filming. Loosely connected stories of other actors play into the main plotline, allowing “Hail, Caesar!” to pack as many stars into the credits as possible, including Scarlett Johansson, Tilda Swinton, Ralph Fiennes, Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Alden Ehrenreich and Frances McDormand. Despite a cast of household names, “Hail, Caesar!” gives them parts that might as well not exist in the first place. No matter how magnetic these actors are, their roles in the movie are mostly insignificant, and the movie seems spread too thin by trying to cover so many miniature stories. As a result, “Hail, Caesar!” is shallow despite its successful critique of Hollywood.
Despite the pointlessness of certain characters and storylines, the film includes quirky humor that salvages it. In one scene, director Laurence Laurentz (Fiennes) coaches actor Hobie Doyle (Ehrenreich) during filming, and their personalities clash to make one of the most memorable scenes in the movie. The European director’s faux-elegant demeanor and Doyle’s cowboy persona create confusion between them. Laurentz directs Doyle, telling him at one point to give “a mirthless chuckle,” and when that doesn’t work out, he tells Doyle to repeat after him as he says a line exactly as he would like Doyle to say it. They try but fail to see eye to eye after repeating the line over and over again.
Clooney’s Whitlock also provides much of the film’s comedy as an abducted star who finds himself amid strange intellectual men. As they discuss their opinions on the economy and the future, Whitlock seems out of his element, still wearing the armor costume from the movie set. Brolin’s role as Mannix, however, gives him little opportunity to be funny. He does the necessary work, meeting with religious leaders to discuss a movie’s portrayal of God and Jesus to make it as inoffensive as possible. In addition, if he fails to manage actors’ scandals, the studio faces notoriety and bad publicity from journalists like twins Thora and Thessaly Thacker (Swinton). Johansson plays a pregnant but unmarried actress whose situation could invite the wrong kind of attention and requires Mannix’s help. Tatum’s turn as actor Burt Gurney adds flavor to “Hail, Caesar!” when he sings and tap dances in a musical number (and later happens to be a communist).
“Hail, Caesar!” skims the surface of the topics it addresses, and using so many characters gives it the feeling of being in 10 places at once. It gives numerous examples of goofiness in the entertainment industry, but does not go in-depth for any of them. The movie touches on religion’s portrayal in film and how politics seeped into the industry during the Cold War, but it reaches a speedy end with little commentary on these areas. Still, “Hail, Caesar!” adequately mocks the movies with the help of its star-studded cast.
_MOVE gives “Hail, Caesar!” 2.5 out of 5 stars_
