Hail, Caesar!
Hail, Old Hollywood!
I love movies. Needless to say, I typically love movies about movies and the film industry. I find it fascinating. (I love meta things in general for the most part: films, television, and plays). It’s one of the reasons I want to become a filmmaker. So, when I first saw a trailer for Hail, Caesar!, I was pretty excited. It doesn’t get much better than a film about a movie studio in the 1950s trying to get back their kidnapped lead actor. Not to mention, the cast looked pretty spectacular. The fact that it was made by the Coen brothers couldn’t hurt either, right? Going into the theater, I thought this movie had everything going for it. An Oscar nomination for Best Picture next year seemed imminent, and I was perfectly fine with that. Walking in, it had everything I wanted in a movie.
However, the film I saw was not the one I expected to see. Once again, a movie trailer got me excited for a film that didn’t really exist. It’s been awhile since I have left a theater feeling… I’m not quite sure how I felt. I felt disappointed that it wasn’t the film that I thought I was going to see. I felt slightly numb at the fact that there was no actual climax and confrontation in the story before the end. It gave me no release as an audience member taking in the story. I left the theater feeling like the story had not taken me on the complete journey it should have. I left feeling like it wasn’t quite finished, despite the fact that I sat there until the end credits had finished rolling. I did think it was funny and that the actors gave great performances, but in all honesty, I still can’t quite figure out the film and how I feel about it.
To begin, the movie promised in the trailers is not the one you get. Yes, George Clooney’s character is kidnapped by a mysterious group and an executive at the studio has to get him back, but that is actually the somewhat background plot of the movie. In fact, Josh Brolin’s character has several more separate issues from the main conflict to deal with at the studio: an unwed pregnant star’s (Scarlett Johansson) future, an upset director (Ralph Fiennes), an actor forced into a new genre (Alden Ehrenreich), and two pushy journalists (Tilda Swinton). Not to mention a headhunter wanting him to change professions and his family at home, with whom Brolin’s character rarely gets to spend time. As you can probably tell, this is a lot of sub-plots and characters for a film to take on, especially one that is less than two hours in length. Plus, most of these sub-plots include long homages to the different popular genres of film that were being made in the 1950s: westerns, musicals, huge period epics, and romantic dramas. While enjoyable to watch, it felt like each homage may have taken away some valuable time that could have been used towards plot development. And with the constant introduction of new characters throughout most of the film, it gave off the impression of constantly being in the exposition phase of the story. In fact, the audience isn’t even introduced to (one would consider) the “true” antagonist of the film (Channing Tatum) until almost halfway through. Not to mention, we don’t learn he is an antagonist until right before (what I think) is the climax of the movie. And like I said before, the conflicts of the film are resolved with no true confrontation. In fact, many of the sub-plots are resolved by the characters, or narrator, telling the audience what happened as opposed to showing us. The movie ends with all of the conflicts that were introduced being solved and Brolin’s character being back to where he was at the beginning: solving new problems, with a smile on his face, because he realizes he loves his job.
When I first left the theater, this ending left me very frustrated and disappointed at the poor script and story development of the Coen brothers. I felt, and still feel like, there was too much going on in the movie that distracted from the advertised main conflict of the film between the studio/ Brolin’s character and the kidnapping group known as “The Future.” The story arc felt incomplete, and there is no reason why the film couldn’t have been longer to do more justice to the storylines. The finished screenplay just didn’t feel right to me. I then started thinking that this type of story, with the various subplots, might have been better served in a television format. That may sound strange, that a film about the film business would be better served as television, but the whole film, at least to me, gave off a very episodic feel with all of the different conflicts, and I think that the very episodic nature of television would have helped that issue. Then, as I was discussing the film with someone, I realized that the film was basically an episode of 30 Rock. Instead of Liz Lemon putting out fires at her television show at NBC, it was Josh Brolin’s character putting out fires for an entire movie studio. Each character starts their day as usual, gets faced with various problems from actors and coworkers, high jinks ensue, eventually the conflicts are resolved, and then the whole process starts all over again the next day. I think this may possibly be the feeling the Coen brothers were going for with the end of the film. There can be no real relief from the resolution of the conflicts, because tomorrow Brolin’s character has to face new ones all over again. If that is what they were going for, I get it, but I don’t quite like the way they did it. You can’t really pull that off in a movie. As a movie watcher, I need the release and relief from the resolution of the conflict by the end of the film. It works for television because you have more time to develop your characters and their conflicts. So, if that is what the Coen brothers were attempting to do with their film, they didn’t quite nail it. They should have consulted the expert (Tina Fey) for some pointers before they said their script was “finished.” As of how I feel about the movie right now, I would suggest watching 30 Rock. I would consider it the far superior modern day, television version of Hail, Caesar!.
Overall, it was a funny movie, the actors’ performances were great, and the cinematography was well done. It was a good movie, aside from the story and writing needing a bit more work. It’s hard for me because I wanted to like the movie, even love it, but that is not how I came out of the theater feeling. I feel like I may need to watch it again to fully appreciate the writing and story arc, but that may have to wait until it’s on Netflix. Until then, I’ll probably still be trying to figure out the film and how I feel about it.