Movie Review - The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

***Available on DVD***

Starring Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, and Paul Newman

Written by Joel Coen, Ethan Coen, and Sam Raimi

Directed by Joel Coen (and Ethan Coen)

When the President of Hudsucker Industries kills himself, the board of directors, led by the conniving Sidney Mussburger (Newman), decides that in order to be able to purchase stock in the company at a low price, they need to hire a boob to run the company into the toilet for a little bit.  Little did they know that their boob, a fresh out of college Norville Barnes (Robbins), has some ingenious plans dealing with toy production ("you know, for kids") that could prove very profitable for the company and may just foil Mussburger's scheme.

This is only the fifth Coen Brothers film that I had seen and up until this point I had only liked one (No Country for Old Men).  I can now add The Hudsucker Proxy to the "like" column.  A very Frank Capra-esque, 30s/40s style film, the movie has a genuine feel-good message peppered with quick pitter-patter dialogue between its leads.   It certainly feels like the film could've come right out of another era.  Nothing racy, raunchy, or explicit here...just the story of a man trying to make his way the best he can.

There were winning performances by Tim Robbins (who, despite the fact that I despise his politcal leanings with a passion, I genuinely like most of his work) and Paul Newman (then again, Paul Newman is always winning).  My only problem with the film (and what keeps it out of the upper echelon of my grading rubric) is Jennifer Jason Leigh's performance as a fast-talking newspaper reporter who goes undercover at Hudsucker Industries to find out more about the newly appointed president.  She was essentially copying Katharine Hepburn's mannerisms and dialect step-for-step, enunciation-for-enunciation.  As the film is certainly a tribute to a bygone era, I'm sure the Coens wanted Leigh's role to be an homage to Hepburn (in some regard), but I just found her performance over-the-top and grating.

Overall, though, this little film is certainly worth a rental if you haven't seen it.

The RyMickey Rating: B+ 

Edited to add:  I'm a fan of music scores in films (my folks would always give me a hard time about this as I'd often mention the score when I'd talk about whether I liked or disliked a movie) and there's also a great one in this flick by Carter Burwell -- very fitting with the era they were trying to depict...