HAIL, CAESAR! (12A) 106 mins. Starring Josh Brolin, George Clooney, Alden Ehrenreich, Ralph Fiennes and Scarlett Johansson.

Hail, Caesar! is a screwball valentine from Joel and Ethan Coen recalling the golden age of 1950s Hollywood when studios nurtured, protected and controlled big name stars.

The four-time Oscar-winning film makeing Coens, (No Country for Old Men, True Grit, Fargo) wrote and direct Hail, Caesar!, an all-star comedy set during the latter years of Hollywood’s Golden Age.

The film follows a single day in the life of a studio fixer who is presented with plenty of problems to fix.

Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) masterminds production at Capitol Pictures, keeping the tawdry secrets of his leading men and ladies out of rival gossip columns penned by twins Thora and Thessaly Thacker (Tilda Swinton).

It's a difficult job at the best of times, but Mannix also has to massage egos on and off the set of the studio's latest big budget epic, Hail, Caesar! - A Tale Of The Christ, starring matinee idol Baird Whitlock (George Clooney).

When a Communist group calling itself The Future kidnaps Baird, Eddie races against time to pay the 100,000 US dollar ransom and keep the abduction secret from the filmmaking community. The pace is as fast as one of those manic car chases.

Meanwhile, Eddie must conceal the pregnancy of synchronised swimming actress DeeAnna Moran (Scarlett Johansson) and convince revered director Laurence Laurentz (Ralph Fiennes) to cast singing Western dreamboat Hobie Doyle (Alden Ehrenreich) in his romantic period drama.

"My readers don't care about Hobie Doyle - he wears chaps!" remarks Thora Thacker coldly.

As the situation with Baird spirals out of control, Eddie calls upon the services of chain-smoking film editor CC Calhoun (Frances McDormand), agent Joseph Silverman (Jonah Hill) and tap-dancing leading man Burt Gurney (Channing Tatum).

Some vignettes are stretched to the point of discomfort, such as Hobie's attempts to master one line of period dialogue ("Would that it were so simple").

However, there are many sparkling dance routines which perfectly sum up the 1950s era.