A Good Idea Screwed Up By A Messy and Disjointed Plot

Rating: 4/10 (24 April 2016)

Looking at Hail Caesar objectively, that's a hell of a cast the Coen Brothers have put together. The cast of Hail Caesar includes: Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Scarlett Johannson, Channing Tatum, Jonah Hill, Tilda Swinton and Ralph Fiennes with many other actors not even listed. It's understandable though, I'd have to imagine the Coen brothers are among the few directors that if they call, no matter what you pick up the phone and say yes. It was the cast that made me want to watch Hail Caesar, along with some curiosity about the movie being set in the yesteryear of Hollywood (the 1950s). It looked like it could be fun and I went in wanting to enjoy it. After watching it, I'll admit that I don't think I was the target market for this movie but I can only review it from my perspective.
*Minor Spoilers Ahead* We start off the movie with our protagonist Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) at a confessional, talking to the priest about his sins. Eddie's sins are minor though, lying about quitting smoking to his wife. The priest seems to be genuinely tired of talking to him. Eddie leaves and goes to a house where a young actress for the studio (Capitol Pictures) has been taking indecent photos. He gets the girl out of there, telling her to pretend she was drugged if asked and is able to evade excessive questioning by the police. Eddie is a fixer, he's the guy the studio puts in charge of making things run smoothly. So whether he's dealing with the kidnapping of a major star Baird Whitlock (George Clooney), helping famous actress DeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson) deal with an unwanted pregnancy or encouraging young western star Hobart Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich) who is trying to fit into a high society comedy directed by Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes), he's always got a full schedule. His job can be so stressful and hectic that while all this is going on, he's pondering a job offer from Lockheed Corp. which would lead to much more stable employment.
The plot summary was hard to write because there really is so much going on with this movie. In fact, my biggest problem with Hail Caesar is that there are many subplots and many small characters that are interesting but I found the plot didn't fit together at all. The movie bounces from scene to scene without connecting to what happened previously. Certain characters have nothing to do with the how the story progresses (Jonah Hill and Scarlett Johansson) and they keep cutting to certain subplots where nothing would happen (We keep seeing Baird Whitlock when he gets kidnapped for 30-60 second bits where almost no progress is made for a good 1/4 of the movie). It was frustrating and confusing to watch. It left me wondering if it was intentionally made to be disjointed or if in the editing process, so much was cut out it just seemed that way.
The other thing that was disappointing about Hail Caesar is that for a comedy, I didn't find it very funny. Again, I'd like to say that I understand that the movie is set in a different cinematic era and that I'm sure it was full of in-jokes and references to that time. Those went over my head and while that's technically my problem, I really wonder how many other people will understand them as well. There were funny scenes (Channing Tatum's dance number was funny and impressive and I thought Alden Ehrenreich was good as Hobart) but calling this a hilarious comedy isn't accurate. I was wondering throughout Hail Caesar who is this movie was made for? It looks great and with the big cast of stars, there had to have been some put into it. But I think with this type of humour, only a small niche of the movie going public will get it. I did laugh at times but most of the movie I was just thinking about how there was too much going on and questioning how they were possibly going to tie it all together in the end (which in my opinion they really didn't).
There were things I liked it Hail Caesar too though. I've already said above how the movie looked great. The creative team seemed to be really romanticizing how movies were made in that time and it was easy to get swept up in that. I thought the acting was largely good too. Brolin was decent as Mannix, Clooney was really hamming it up (he always does in the Coen brother's movies) and I thought Alden was the bright spot. I also liked Scarlett Johansson, Channing Tatum and Ralph Fiennes. Just be careful if you're looking to watch Hail Caesar for one actor or actress specifically. The screen time that each actor gets varies greatly and while this is an ensemble, certain people vanish quickly (Jonah Hill is in it for 5 minutes tops).
With that gigantic cast and some really solid filmmakers at the helm there was a lot of potential here. I just couldn't get over how messy the plot was and how boring I found it to be at points. I think it's just best to chalk it up to being outside the demographic Hail Caesar was meant for. I think it would have made a better drama about how Eddie had to deal with the darker side of Hollywood and how Eddie couldn't cope with the stress of his job. But maybe that's just me, I hope this movie finds it's audience no matter how small it may be.