Hail, Caesar! review

The Coen Brothers latest film takes place in Hollywood during the 50’s at a time when big studios strictly controlled the lives of their actors. It follows Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin), head of production at Capitol Pictures, as he tries to keep the scandalous behaviour of his stars out of the press whilst also trying to fend off job offers from the Lockheed Corporation.

When big star Baird Whitlock (George Clooney) is kidnapped during the production of the studio’s new prestige piece Hail, Caesar! A Tale of the Christ, Mannix enlists the help of Western actor Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich) to find him.

Hail, Caesar! contains everything you’d expect from a Coen Brothers film: colourful characters, references to classic films of yore, and dollops of tongue in cheek humour.

A sharp script is buoyed by perfectly judged performances from Brolin, Clooney, Eherenreich and a brassy but all too brief turn from Scarlet Johansson as an actress/synchronised swimmer.

If there’s one thing wrong with Hail, Caesar! it’s the persistent feeling that one is watching a sample from a bigger, more ambitious movie. The film’s amusingly outlandish plot seems stifled 

by the gilded trappings of the Hollywood movies it both lampoons and pays tribute to. Indeed, some of the daring shifts in tone seen in other films by the brothers, such as Fargo and Inside Llewyn Davis, would not have gone amiss.

Hail, Caesar! is a worthy addition to the Coen Brothers canon but it is far from their best.

Star Rating: 3/5