Hail, Caesar

"Hail, Caesar" boasts an all star cast including Channing Tatum, Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Frances McDormand, Jonah Hill, Elden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes, Scarlett Johansson and Tilda Swinton and was co-written and directed by Joel and Ethan Coen. Given this stellar list of talented actors, writers and directors, I eagerly anticipated viewing this attempted satire of 1950’s Hollywood but, unfortunately, I was greatly disappointed for the advertised brand was significantly better than the product. With so much material available, the Coens missed almost every opportunity to make the film work and could have elicited genuine laughter instead of only a slight smile or grin from an audience anxiously wanting and hoping for more. It should also be noted that Mr. Clooney and Ms. Johansson, two charismatic and generally enjoyable actors to watch, should not attempt slapstick comedy for the result is more tragic than humorous. Also, the film with many subplots never properly allows any of them to develop and what could have been a clever spoof of making films in the mid 20th Century becomes a poor but unsuccessful  attempt to be funny.  Knowing what could have been achieved but wasn’t is even more frustrating. Difficult to understand, too, is that so many reputable critics have applauded this film apparently judging the proverbial "book" by its cover rather than its contents. I give the film 2 stars suggesting that the Coens owed the viewers and their own tremendous talents more than they were able to achieve in their latest theatrical endeavor.