So, despite the mild flu that came along and bushwacked me out of attending the 3rd day of the Southern California Writers Conference here in San Diego, yesterday my sweetie-wife and I went out for a matinee movie and lunch. (A light lunch as my appetite had not yet recovered.)

For me, the Cohen brothers are hit and miss, some of their films work very well for me (I am looking at you The Hudsucker Proxy and Burn After Reading) and other do not live up to the hype (Now I give Fargo and The Big Lebowski the stink eye.) Hail, Cesar! is neither top tier like Burn after Reading, but for me, it works far better than Lebowski.

Hail, Cesar! is the story of Eddie Mannix, the man responsible for making sure the fictional movie stud1io of Capital Studios gets its product turned out on time. He deals with every manner of crisis, taking him away from his family and his life. There are lots of plot line in the movie because Eddie is always dealing with problems. The plot lines do not all converge at the end because the real story here is Eddie and the decision he has to make about the direction of his life. If you watch the trailers you might think that the kidnapping of his lead star Baird Whitlock is the major plot, but it is just one of several problems Eddie has to resolve.

I enjoyed the film, more than my sweetie-wife, but she also had a good time. The more you know classic Hollywood and Communist Theory the funnier the film will be for you.

I think the film also has, within its film in a film conceit, a lovely and moving passage on Christianity that comes off as neither preachy nor satirical. (Though there is a laugh at the end delivered through performance and not smug superiority.) This is interesting considering I am not a Christian but I thought the speech painted a Christianity I wished more people took to hear.

So, knowing that your mileage may vary, I recommend seeing this one.