When the redoubtable Coen Brothers turn to the less sturdy ground of comedy, the results are often mixed.

For every The Big Lebowski there's The Ladykillers, for every Hudsucker Proxy there's Intolerable Cruelty where their footing seems less confident, less discerning. And so it is for this witty, clever joyously knowing, lid-lifting take on 1950’s Hollywood that somehow, and all too often, seems wide of its mark. Funny, just not that funny.

At the film's heart is heat-throb superstar Baird Whitlock (George Clooney – The Descendants) who was in the middle of filming the titular religious epic the day he was kidnapped by communist screenwriters. While he debates the virtue of a new social order from – cue irony – a stunning beachside mansion, studio head Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin – Sicario) tries to locate him while also marrying off a pregnant starlet (Scarlett Johansson - Her), heading off a petulant director (Ralph Fiennes – The Grand Budapest Hotel), setting off an actor who can't act (Alden Ehrenreich - Stoker) and fending off a pair of headline hungry gossip columnists (Tilda Swinton – We Need To Talk About Kevin). All in a day's work, literally.

As Mannix bounces between his studio’s film projects, it offers the Coen's a magnificent opportunity to present a series of vignettes, films within films, such as a Berkley-esque number with Johansson's acrobatic mermaid, or Channing Tatum channelling Gene Kelly as a tap-dancing sailor. They serve as beautiful chapter markers to the greater story of a missing star and they're a lot of fun – up to a point. They're also strangely isolated from that story, and turn Hail, Caesar! into a cluster of good ideas rather than one, fully crafted whole.

Which is not to say that this isn't an enjoyable romp. Hail, Caesar! is every bit the well polished, erudite, knowing and entertaining Coen brothers' film that you've signed up for. It's bright and witty, it goes to unexpected places and you're happy to go there with them. It also seems like an (indulgent?) opportunity for the brothers to create some short films they've always wanted to make, but never got around to doing. Before long it begins to feels like a series of industry in-jokes that carry the bulk of us only so far before we're stopped by security to watch the rest of the party continue without us. And that is the frustration of a film that won’t let you enjoy it as much as you wan to.

// COLIN FRASER

Previewed at Event Cinemas, George St, Sydney, on 17 February 2016