Review of Hail, Caesar! (2016) by Brett H — 23 Mar 2016

Hail, Caesar is the latest film brought to us by the exceptional writing and directing team of Joel and Ethan Coen, but however good their intentions may have been to make a spoof of the old-timey, Hollywood system, the film as a whole misses the mark.

The story follows a Hollywood fixer, played expertly by Josh Brolin, who lands in hot water when his biggest star, played by George Clooney, is abducted and held for ransom. From there we get a truly zany, though disjointed narrative as Brolin walks from set-to-set trying to find out what happened to his star; interjected into that story is several movies-within-the-movie which are arguably the most entertaining part of this film.

The supporting cast is A-list, though some appearances are so brief it's a bit of false advertising even putting them on the poster. We have Scarlett Johansson as a trouble-maker starlet, Channing Tatum as a Gene Kelly-esque dancing star, Tilda Swilton pulling double-duty as twin reporters, Jonah Hill, Ralph Fiennes and Frances McDormand in brief roles, and the scene-stealing, Alden Ehrenreich as a singing, cowboy star who's forced into changing his image by appearing in dramas.

The cast is universally excellent and in no way are the problem here, the issue with this film is that it lacks focus and it spins what could be a very fun throwback caper into a farce of loosely connected parts that doesn't add up to a whole lot.

It does have some shining moments of brilliant comedy, most notably in a scene between Ehrenreich and Fiennes going over a complex line again and again, and the dancing scene from Tatum's movie is extremely impressive, but those moments are scarce and about halfway through I started to lose interest when I realized the film wasn't going anywhere.

A big disappointment from me as the Coens usually deliver gold, but this is far from their best work and I hope just a minor speed bump.