Chew's Review - Hail, Caesar
https://www.elkgrovenews.net/2016/02/chews-review-hail-caesar.html
By Gary Chew | February 4, 2016 |
Opens Friday |
I
submit that most actors who appear in movies made by the
Coen brothers must be
falling all over themselves to get even a small part in
whatever new project
Joel and Ethan have hatched. Such is the case with the one
that's just opened
and the brothers have dubbed Hail, Caesar.
There
is a more than an even chance most of those who made this
cast didn't earn
bushels and bushels of thousand dollars bills doing the Coen
part they were
lucky enough to snag. What well-known actors
do
get in such a
deal as this is the fun of doing a picture that gives the
“finger” to the roles
they might be seen in more often … that
do bring in the big bucks. Ah, show
bid'ness.
Other than
Josh Brolin and George Clooney, who carry the movie,
everyone is pretty much in
a cameo. Why would well-known film stars want big pay checks
plus a percentage
of the box office when they can redeem themselves for other
movies they've
already done that don't place the myths and legends of
Hollywood inside a
metaphorical piƱata as have the Coens done with Hail,
Caesar, then bash
it with a large bat?
Cameos are
handled by Scarlett Johansson, Ralph Fiennes, Jonah Hill,
Frances McDormand,
Channing Tatum and Tilda Swinton in a double role cameo of
twins who are
scurrilously spoken Hollywood gossip columnists. Hedda
Hopper and her
doppelganger ... or shades of Trumbo plus one.
Yikes!
Joel and
Ethan put you in Hollywood during the Fifties with Brolin's
character, Eddie
Mannix, up to his fedora in trouble having to run Capital
Pictures. Eddie
handles all that's necessary to cover up foibles pulled off
by his biggest
stars; antics that are unacceptable for the decent folks
back in flyover land.
Clooney, in
his Roman centurion garb, is a Hestonesque character named
Baird Whitlock. Baird
isn't the brightest bulb down along Hollywood and Vine. He's
kidnapped from the
studio while shooting a Bible epic and taken ransom by some
Hollywood Commies of
the 50s. They're holding him at a swank beach house just a
hammer and sickle
from the world's largest ocean. I lost it during the
Hollywood Commie cell
meeting scene. Such intellectualizing you have never heard
before; Baird missing
it all.
I
again lost control
when Tatum, after actually doing his really fancy dance
routine in a sailor
suit, a la Gene Kelly or Donald O'Connor, looks as if he'll
be rendezvousing
with a Russian sub just off La Jolla, or wherever, that will
whisk him away
forever to the Soviet Union. (And he seemed like such a nice
boy.)
The film
has memorable bits, but holds not too well together.
Although it may play a bit
too much to the “wings,” it entertained the heck out of me
despite its abrupt
finish and no denouement. If I recall correctly, approximately
the first half of
Hail had everyone chortling. Laughs subsided as the
narrative graduated
to more politics and deeper, yet humorous cynicism. Some
people may feel dissed
by what they see as irreligious innuendo. I laughed myself
silly but confess:
I'm a Coen bro freak.
Two other
cameos should be mentioned: Alison Pill plays Eddie's wife
and Clancy Brown
(HBO's Carnivale and the more recent feature, 99
Homes) plays
alongside Clooney. That comes near the finish in a scene
that has Clooney as
Baird, delivering almost all of a long and moving soliloquy.
Brown's role is
further identified in publicity material as a “Communist
screenwriter.”
For me, the
only real issue with Hail Caesar is that Scarlett
Johansson didn't get
more face time.
Copyright ©
2016 by Gary Chew. All rights
reserved.
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