|
The so-called Golden Age of Hollywood gets the Coen Bros. treatment with the
amusingly all-over-the-place trifle "Hail, Caesar!" Writer-directors Joel Coen
and Ethan Coen aren't aiming for the lazy ol' moon with this particular project,
but something lighter and more jocular as studio "fixer" Eddie Mannix (Josh
Brolin) races across backlots trying to solve the quandaries of his roster of
filmmakers and movie stars. Does it amount to much more than a hill of beans?
Not really. At this point, one expects the Coens to aim a little higher and dig
a little deeper. Nevertheless, it's nice to be reminded how willing they are to
still have fun.
Eddie Mannix is Capitol Pictures' resident one-stop-shop problem-solver. He
heads to church every day, confessing middling sins like his inability to quit
smoking for his wife (Alison Pill), but the rest of the time he is kept busy
moving from one studio set and screening room to the next as he keeps tabs on
the upcoming prestige releases and tries to paint a rosy public relations
picture. There's water-dancing actress DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson), who
has recently found out she is pregnant but—gasp!—isn't married. There's Hobie
Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich), the professionally green western star plucked from
Podunk America who gets in over his head trying to act in a serious drama
directed by the increasingly flustered Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes). There
are competing twin celeb columnists Thora and Thessaly Thacker (Tilda Swinton in
a dual role), forever sniffing around for a story. And, perhaps most trying of
all, there is veteran matinee idol Baird Whitlock (George Clooney), who has been
kidnapped seemingly off the set of his religious swords-and-sandals epic "Hail,
Caesar!" and is currently being held for a $100,000 ransom.
"Hail, Caesar!" is a blessed blur of movie-style artifice and silly
behind-the-scenes exposé of 1950s La La Land. Writer-directors Joel and Ethan
Coen give their film an episodic narrative tempo, many of the characters popping
up for only a scene or two as Eddie attempts to sort
out their troubles and then
moves on. The more central through line—Baird's oddball abduction by a gang of
jovial, well-spoken suits who have whisked him away to a seaside Malibu
mansion—has all the tension of a walk through the front yard to pick up the
morning paper. The motive behind this kinda-sorta extortion plot proves to be a
MacGuffin, while Baird's takeaway lesson involving the studio system and
capitalism is more punch line than hard-hitting revelation.
What "Hail, Caesar!" leaves us with, then, is a buoyant 106-minute romp,
dreamily photographed by Roger Deakins and indelibly performed by a glitzy
ensemble. Josh Brolin is the straight man as Eddie Mannix, trying to do his job
but sometimes letting his slap-happy hand get the best of him. George Clooney is
all wide eyes and little brains as Baird Whitlock, who doesn't even immediately
realize he has been kidnapped. Alden Ehrenreich is a hoot as hopelessly bad
actor Hobie Doyle; a scene where Ralph Fiennes' harried director Laurence
Laurentz desperately tries to teach him how to naturally deliver a solitary line
in front of the camera is a comic highlight. Tilda Swinton is doubly delicious
as gossip journalists Thora and Thessaly Thacker, always ready to uncover their
next scoop. Frances McDormand disappointingly only has one scene, but she is
nothing less than memorable as chain-smoking film editor C.C. Calhoun, learning
the hard way not to wear long scarves as she manually cuts her pictures. Other
participants, like Scarlett Johansson, Alison Pill and Jonah Hill, are severely
underused.
"Hail, Caesar!" is certainly enjoyable from moment to moment, but makes one wish
it was more focused and fleshed out on the whole. As is, most of the characters
never move beyond two-dimensional archetypes and the story's dramatic substance
is, shall we say, missing in
action. As a frothy glimpse into the milieu of
old-school Hollywood filmmaking, there are
nonetheless pleasures to be had.
Tap-dancing musical number "No Dames," led by fleet-footed showman Burt Gurney
(Channing Tatum), recalls the naiveté and magic of cinema's past. Eddie's
interactions with everyone he crosses paths with are well-timed and edited for
maximum amusement. A late set-piece involving a nighttime boat ride and a
submarine is gloriously surreal. If the Coens have anything particularly
meaningful to say with "Hail, Caesar!" it has gotten lost in translation. In its
own off-the-wall manner, however, this is an original, unapologetically larkish
escapade.
|
