From the looks of its ads and trailers, the new Coen brothers’ movie “Hail, Caesar!” looks like another wacky comic romp along the lines of their prior hits “The Big Lebowski” and “Raising Arizona.”

After all, it features a star-studded cast led by George Clooney portraying a dim-witted movie star in the 1950s era of the studio system whose latest role is playing a Roman centurion. His character goes from unbeliever to worshipful follower of Christ in an overheated epic (also titled “Hail, Caesar!”), which is clearly a spoof of that era’s all-star biblical extravaganzas, best illustrated by “The Ten Commandments.”

While the film primarily focuses on a studio executive’s search for Clooney after he is kidnapped, there are plenty of other surreally funny subplots in which the same executive, Eddie Mannix, has to hide the indiscretions of other stars and maintain their pure public images.

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It’s all very Hollywood. But here’s where the story diverges: The real underlying tale is the unexpectedly touching and powerful depiction of Mannix’s inner struggles of being a devout Catholic family man whose life revolves around hiding the sins of others.

The fact that this struggle is so central to the movie, and that it’s portrayed with seriousness and respect, will likely surprise viewers who have seen the profanity-filled “The Big Lebowski” and the Coens’ dark noir thrillers and comedies including “No Country for Old Men,” “Fargo” and “Blood Simple.” Yet the dynamic duo have explored spiritual and existential themes throughout their 19-film career.

The brothers grew up Jewish in a suburb of Minneapolis, and a 2011 article in the Jewish newspaper Haaretz noted that “The brothers’ Jewish heritage is on display in a number of their films, most obviously in “A Serious Man” – translated into Hebrew as “The Good Jew.” Despite many references to Jewish cultural themes in their movies, the two deny that their own Jewishness is necessarily connected to their filmmaking.

“There were Jewish characters, but in regards to whether our background influences our film making … who knows?” says Joel. “We don’t think about it … There’s no doubt that our Jewish heritage affects how we see things.”

“We grew up in a Jewish community, but we never thought to make a story that deals with Israel,” Joel continued. “We don’t really know Israel — we write American stories. That’s what we know.”

The Coens’ comedy explores “death, betrayal, greed, the seeming absence of God and the dire consequences of one’s choices.”

Yet the Coens have long touched on Christian references and themes as well, so much so that the Chicago Sun-Times religion writer Cathleen Falsani devoted an entire 2009 book, “The Dude Abides: The Gospel According to the Coen Brothers,” to the subject. According to the Publishers Weekly review of the tome, Falsani managed to find explorations of God — along with spiritual and religious questions and challenges — in every one of their 14 films leading up to that point.

According to Falsani, the Coens’ comedy was a means to exploring deeper issues of “death, betrayal, greed, the seeming absence of God and the dire consequences of one’s choices.” She ultimately didn’t find that the films were overtly religious, but felt they definitely “convey their spiritual insights about the human condition.”

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Yet 2009’s “A Serious Man” did deal with Jewish ideas fairly directly, and “Hail, Caesar!” is unmistakably positive towards Catholicism in particular, and the redemptive power of Christ more generally. Portrayed by Josh Brolin in a terrific performance that alternates deftly between humor and pathos under a flinty exterior, Mannix opens the movie attending confession in the middle of the night.

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His overly sensitive nature is conveyed immediately by the fact that his big sin is sneakily smoking three cigarettes and lying to his wife about continuing the habit. Even more ridiculous, the exasperated priest reminds Mannix that he just confessed similar sins just 24 hours before.

There is also a wonderfully funny scene in which Mannix has to deal with a roundtable of religious experts he enlisted to give their opinions on the “Caesar!” script. While Mannix was looking to make sure the movie depicted Christ respectfully, he has to contend with a ridiculous yet witty verbal sparring match between a Catholic priest, an Eastern Orthodox cleric, a Protestant minister and a Jewish rabbi who could really care less.

But at his greatest moment of personal crisis, Mannix sneaks onto the lot in the dead of night and prays the rosary in his office before walking quietly through the shadows of the lot to the movie’s climactic crucifixion set. The Coens don’t show what he says, but as Mannix stares imploringly at the three crosses of Christ and the two thieves adjoining him, it is clear this is a moment of gravitas and respect, and Mannix winds up acting in a noble manner in the end.

Perhaps the Coen brothers’ reticence to admit how directly they make their Judeo-Christian themes, and their own personal faith-inspired lives, is a matter of maintaining artistic mystery. Perhaps it’s a matter of knowing that if they talk too directly, it might alienate a fan base that is absorbing positive messages about God and faith without even knowing it.

Either way, they are doing a remarkable thing in an era when far too much Hollywood product is either totally lacking in traditional spirituality or is hitting viewers over the head with it in films like “God’s Not Dead.”