THE HUDSUCKER PROXY (1993) A Film Review by Ted Prigge Copyright 1997 Ted Prigge
Director: Joel Coen Writers: Joel and Ethan Coen Starring: Tim Robbins, Paul Newman, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Charles Durning, John Mahoney, Bruce Campbell, Peter Gallagher, Steve Buscemi, Anna Nicole Smith
"The Hudsucker Proxy" is basically the only film from the Coens that was nearly critically and commercially admonished. Costing about 30 million bucks or so to make, and making about...1, as well as being trashed by a lot of critics for having "style but no substance," it was therefore dubbed "a failure." But don't be fooled by all this; "The Hudsucker Proxy" is one of the funniest and warmest comedies to come around.
Playing as a kind of parody of the Frank Capra films of the 30s and 40s, as well as a semi-satire of 40s industrialism, and general blue-collar working, "The Hudsucker Proxy" presents a surreal vision of the world of the past, filled with the wacky, off-beat humor of the Coen brothers, which seeps into all of their films, even if they're not comedies (except "Blood Simple," which plays it straight). What's great is that this film never looses its humor.
Taking place, I suppose, in the 40s, it deals with a kind of dim-witted yet hopeful young man (Tim Robbins) who comes to the big city to get a good job, but finds he has to settle with a crap mail room job for a company called "Hudsucker Enterprises" (the company in "Raising Arizona" too). Ironically, the day he's hired, the president of the company (Charles Durning) mysteriously and joyously leaps from the top story to his ultimate squish.
Since this means that the stocks will go out to the general public as of the new year (some company technicality...), the heads of the company, ruled by the cigar-smoking Mussburger (Paul Newman), decide to find a total dupe to replace Durning, who will drive the stocks way down, so they can buy them cheap. And guess who has to deliver a "blue letter" to Mussburger on that day?
Before you can say "cliche," Robbins is being fitted for a nice suit, and his hair is being plastered down. Enter the Rosalind Russel-inspired Amy Archer (Jennifer Jason Leigh), a feisty reporter who bets her pullitzer that it's a sham and goes undercover to find everything out. Soon she's posing as his adorable secretary, and finds she's falling in love with him, and he with her.
The company thinks they've scored gold with chosing Robbins for the job, especially when he comes up with his idea for the company's new gimmick: a drawing with a circle which he carries along with him in his shoe ("You know: for the kids," he says when he introduces it anyone). The company goes along with it because they don't know what the hell it is, but there's a sad (for them) irony in it, especially when you see what it is he's actually invented.
The film is one of the most frequently funny films of the 90s, going for various academic gags throughout the course of the film. They seem to be going for the humor they did in their amazing "Raising Arizona," which is one of the funniest flicks I've ever seen. Of course, with the big budget, it means they can improve on the sets and overall production of their film. The mail room is actually reminiscent of any set in "Brazil," with its negative outlook in beaurocratic jobs, which the film satires frequently. We get giant sets, a cast of seemingly thousands, and some just-plain-cool shots, and even some special effects. The suicide jump by Durning, and a later one by another character, is the best I've ever seen in a film. I think.
If there's a downside to the film, it's that it's just not as cool as their other films. Sure, I think it's a fantastic comedy, featuring many great jokes and even some satire. But it doesn't have the great heart of the earlier Coen brother films. But to me, it's okay, because this film is one of the few films to be non-stop funny for its full time.
With Tim Robbins' giddy performance, Paul Newman's deliciously cold acting, and Jennifer Jason Leigh's awesome Rosalind impersonation, we get a parody of the screwball comedy and the films of Capra, as well as a satire of companies and beurocracy which is definitely one of the most enjoyable films I've seen in the past couple years.
MY RATING (out of 4): ***
Homepage at: http://www.geocities.com/Hollywood/Hills/8335/
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