THE HUDSUCKER PROXY
A film review by David Cowen
Copyright 1994 David Cowen
The Coen Brothers have found success again. After producing and directing four stylish and increasingly brilliant films: BLOOD SIMPLE, RAISING ARIZONA, MILLER'S CROSSING, and the spectacularly complex BARTON FINK, one would guess that the brother's stab on the high-budget, commercial genre would create a watered-down result not even close to matching the quality of their previous successes. And while its doubtful that HUDSUCKER PROXY will be able to recoup its $25 (rumored at $40) million budget in the theatres, the film spends the budget well, mixing the Coen's brother's usual dark themes (Death, Fate, Work, Failure, Fear of pretending to be what one is not) into a lush, magical, accessible, Capraesque family movie. The Coen brothers have put cream in their coffee, and the result is nothing short of amazing.
Tim Robbins stars as Norville Barnes, a small-town rube from the Muncie School of Business who came to New York with a huge dream and considerably less work experience. He finally finds an exploitative job at Hudsucker Industries in the mail room, and goes to work "long hours and low wages," attempting (and failing at) absurdly huge tasks.
Waring Hudsucker, on the other hand, is at the top of the huge Hudsucker Enterprise, sitting at the end of a tremendous lacquered board table, smiling as he listens to his accountant give an assessment of the company: one of incredible success and optimism for the future. However, his salubrious smile melts into a frown of serious dread as he realizes that his pocket watch is ticking perilously close to noon. He winds the watch, sets it on the table, and as the watch ticks past noon, runs down the board-room table, jumping through a huge plate glass window.
Paul Newman stars as Sidney J. Mussberger, Hudsucker's right-hand man. A cut-throat businessman, Mussberger instantly mans the helm of the company. Realizing that Hudsucker had decreed that in the event of his death, Hudsucker Industries stock would be taken public--a move that would take control of the company away from Mussberger and the other power-elite in the board room, Mussberger forms a plan to keep control of the company--find a stupid, unwitting dupe to be the president, which would screw the company up so bad that Hudsucker stock would lose its value so that it could be bought up cheaply by the board members.
Coming up from the mail room to deliver correspondence to Mussberger, Barnes terrorizes Mussberger's office, setting important documents on fire, letting contracts blow out the window, spilling water all over the floor, all the while attempting to show Mussberger a diagram for a crackpot new product--a perfectly drawn circle on a crumpled piece of paper. Mussberger, impressed by Barnes' bumbling naivete makes him the head of the company.
However, the crackpot plan turns out to be the hula hoop, which Barnes produces using the Hudsucker's resources. The ensuing hula-hoop craze quickly turns the former small-town rube into a paparazzi-stalked celebrity, hounded to come up with an idea greater than a hula hoop. Jennifer Jason Leigh plays Amy Archer, a Pulitzer-prize winning reporter who lies her way undercover into Hudsucker Industries and discovers Barnes' inexperienced past. Barnes is made out to be an imbecile, and his fate turns for the worse as he senses his time at the top running out.
Not enough can be said about the Coen's knack for creating an atmosphere in their films. Shots of the inner-workings of Hudsucker Industries, from rooms full of pneumatic tubes and the inner workings of the huge Hudsucker Building clock to the ticker-tape luxuriance of the offices of Mussberger and Barnes are striking and beautiful. The film's editing moves smoothly between segments, giving it a grace missing in the somewhat abrupt editing of other Coen brother's films. The dark, thick tone of dread found in their other films has somehow given way into the air of a genuine magic one finds in the charm of 40's and 50's Christmas films. The music adds greatly to this: it swirls into heavenly, wistful crescendos at all the right moments. THE HUDSUCKER PROXY is by far the most handsome and magical American film to be in wide distribution in a couple of decades.
The performances are superb as well. Tim Robbins has proved himself to be one of America's finest actors in his roles in THE PLAYER and SHORT CUTS, as well as an impressive director/actor in BOB ROBERTS. Robbins' Norville Barnes isn't just a hick caricature--Robbins plays Barnes as a genuinely charming imbecile: a wise fool, as it were. Jennifer Jason Leigh's Amy Archer at first glance seems to be a obnoxious imitation of the Katherine Hepburn type, but upon closer inspection it becomes obvious that its the Archer *character* who wants to be the fast-talking tough dame, not Leigh imitating one--and Leigh's acting reveals all sorts of subtleties and innocence in Archer's character a lesser actress would gloss over. The only loose point is Paul Newman, who doesn't give his character any more life than of any other "scheming greedy rich corporate head" caricature.
Of course, the dialogue is incredibly well written--in a Coen Brothers film, it is hard to have a favorite quote because everything that flies out of every actor's mouth is instantly catchy and quotable. The only problem is occasionally, especially with the scenes in the newspaper office, the actors fly through their dialogue so fast it takes two or three viewings to decipher everything they say.
All of this begs the question: why is what appears to be (and is marketed as) an innocent light comedy given a $25 million dollar treatment by action film producer Joel Silver? Silver claims "It's just ... a good *story*, and the invention of the hula hoop, that's just *cool*." Somehow, I never thought retro-cool was the only thing needed to net a $25 million production budget (well, yeah, there was Oliver Stone's tedious THE DOORS, but that's another story altogether).
But THE HUDSUCKER PROXY is much more than just a well-produced light comedy. Somewhere, buried beneath the high-gloss sheen of the sets, the fine acting, the well-paced jokes and the machine-gun paced dialogue lurks a bit more ... the Coen Brothers' scripts spawn layers of themes below the surface of the plot, commentaries on life which span from the evolution of man's survival, the difficulties of producing successful art, to a literal struggle betwixt time and fate.
The Coens proved themselves masters of this sort of script-writing with the obtuse but engrossing Barton Fink, but in many ways Hudsucker Proxy may be more successful--it turns the Coen's twisted, enlightened view of the enigmatic sides of life into a completely audience-accessible film, suitable for the entire family. In doing so, the Coen brothers have either made the most realistic, normal surrealist films ever imagined, or one of the most complex, multi-faceted family films ever made. "You know, for kids!" Either way, the film is superb.
So what does it get? 9 [out of 10]. I loved it.
David S. Cowen
2609cowend@vms.csd.mu.edu
eschat@solaria.mil.wi.us
.
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews