The Cohen Brothers have forged an odd career, for every Fargo and No Country for Old Men there’s a Burn without Reading or A Big
Lebowski. They do sinister with comic undertones, and then just out and out
silly, they’re an acquired taste and if your ear isn’t quite tuned to their
sensibilities then there’s every chance that you just don’t get what makes them
so great.
Hail Caesar centres on Josh Brolin’s
Eddie Mannix, a fixer for a Hollywood studio in the 50s, work is building up
for him as he’s dealing with troublesome films stars as the studio try’s to
bring about their latest production, Hail
Caesar. Things are complicated when the star of the picture is kidnapped
and held for ransom by a group of Hollywood communists. The plot is
essentially, and also deliberately, ridiculous. This isn’t a film that’s based
on plot though, that’s merely there to throw us head first into this wonderful
classic Hollywood which oozes with charisma and charm. The film is a collection
of very funny moments, ably performed by very talented actors, all loosely
strung together with a nonsensical plot. Fortunately for the sake of the film those
individual moments are glorious. There are few modern films that allow for a 10
minute long Channing Tatum dance number inspired by On the Town, it’s also incredibly self-indulgent of the Cohen’s to
have a big synchronised swimming number, but the charm of these scenes give them
a pass. Josh Brolin holds the film together, and George Clooney gets laughs as
the idiot movie star Baird Whitlock, but the film is stolen in its entirety by
the hilarious performance of Alden Ehrenreich as Hobie Doyle, the sweet and
lovable Hollywood western star who unfortunately can’t act. A scene
between himself and a director trying to get the correct pronunciation of a
line is both stupid beyond belief and also laugh out loud hilarious.
It’s fair to say
that if you weren’t already a fan of the Cohen’s to begin with, then Hail Caesar is a wonderfully silly and
glorious love letter to the golden age of Hollywood, and for days later you’ll
be repeating to yourself the line ‘would that it were so simple, would that it
were so simple’. (4 Stars)
this isn’t going to be the film to win you over. However
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