Hail Cesar!

Channing Tatum in Hail Caesar!

Joel and Ethan Cohen's Hail Caesar! is lightweight and somewhat forgettable, but its affectionate tone towards the film genres of yesteryear won this cinephile over. Leading man George Clooney is kidnapped by a cabal of communists leaving studio fixer Josh Brolin scrambling to pay off the perps and solve a myriad of other problems. The plot is one of the Cohen brothers slightest shaggy dog stories, but the performers display charm and chutzpah. 

Part of the appeal of this film to buffs is its warm recreation of Hollywood in the early fifties: the films themselves, the backlot intrigue, and the scandals that the tabloids have documented since Wallace Reid got hooked on morphine. Hail Caesar! alludes to gossip about such stars as Clark Gable and Esther Williams in a way that tips its hand to the cognoscenti without seeming cruel. Gary Cooper's progress from Western star to white tie and tails romantic lead is mirrored in the Alden Ehrenreich subplot and the young Mr. Ehrenreich handles his part with aplomb. 

At times, Hail Caesar! threatens to turn into a wax works for the classic movie fan who can decode the references: Veronica Osorio (who I hope to see more of) is Lupe Velez and Ralph Fiennes is probably George Cukor, etc. As in many films in the Cohens' oeuvre, there are extraneous bits that should have been trimmed. Clooney, as he has previously in the Cohens' films, is allowed to mug for too long. Frances McDormand's cameo should have been edited, but I suppose you gotta keep the missus happy. However, there is so much brio in the performances of the aforementioned Ehrenreich, Scarlett Johansson, and, especially, Channing Tatum that I was generally entranced. The Cohens are overly generous in allowing performers leeway, but it has satisfying results when such veterans as Heather Goldenhersh, Max Baker, and Clancy Brown get a chance to shine. The Cohens are often derided as smart-aleck satirists with next to nothing to say, but Hail Caesar! is suffused with affection for its characters.

Structural deficiencies keep Hail Caesar! from reaching the heights of their best films: Miller's Crossing, Fargo, and A Serious Man. Brolin's  spiritual struggles and family life barely make an impression alongside the tinsel town follies. His character functions as an entre in the various subplots, but he doesn't register like Marge or the Dude do. Still, a second tier Coen brothers movie is, by my auteurist standards, better than most. (9/14/16)