The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

You won't be disappointed!

If you don't like this, we can't be friends.

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

Good films always raise compelling questions, whether the format is fiction or documentary fact.

The Coen Brothers are hit and miss with me (I tend to have a preference more towards their comedy then their drama) but The Hudsucker Proxy is by far my favourite movie of theirs, a film which feels like it was tailor made for me. The Hudsucker Proxy takes place in its own unique universe; the acting style in the film is reminiscent of the 1930's yet the film is set in the 1950's. Likewise there appears to be a clash of fashion; the outfits are from the 30's yet the cars or the beatnik coffee house which Norvillie visits are unmistakably 1950's but I like this combination of two eras, two distinct time periods of Hollywood's golden age wrapped into one. The Hudsucker Proxy is a movie with so many layers and homage's to other movies (Sweet Smell of Success, Metropolis, The Apartment, The Producers, various Frank Capra movies); I'm sure with future viewings I will unlock even more secrets the movies holds. The Hudsucker Proxy is a love letter to anyone who loves the aesthetic of classic Hollywood movies with set designs to die for such as Paul Newman's office, an art deco fantasy land; yet the movie even injects some Terry Gilliam-esque cinematography with the scene in the mail room feeling like the world from 1985's Brazil. Likewise this is a movie of drawn out colours, mostly greys in what I feel is an attempt to emulate the appearance of black & white.What happened to Tim Robbins? He was on such a hot streak of films during the first half of the 90's, just after this he was in The Shawshank Redemption (one of the best two film streaks ever?); since then, not so much. The character of Norvillie Barnes is a Preston Sturges hero trapped in a Frank Capra story; although due to Robbin's resemblance to a young Orson Welles the character comes off to me as someone who has the look of Welles but has the personality of Gary Cooper; a young entrepreneurial go getter with a wide eyed innocence who is not fully in tune with reality, or at least hasn't been subjected to it yet. When he first arrives in New York and tries looking for a job, the word "experience" is plastered all over the frame, oh the reliability.Jennifer Jason Leigh is a revelation here; channelling Rosalind Russell, yet I can still detect elements of Katharine Hepburn, Barbara Stanywck and Jean Arthur in there. The coordination of her gestures is perfect and I'm also fascinated by her character dynamic in which she becomes insecure about her femininity or lack therefore off at Norville's comments of her trying to be one of the boys. Although it's never resolved, this still gives her character another layer of depth. Paul Newman on the other hand rarely ventured into comedy but he pulls of the cigar chomping, "you're fired!" type boss with ease.The film's combination of numerous elements from various genres is also carried over in its humour, from dry jokes to more overt, fast talking screwball antics. The gag with the circle drawn on the piece of paper followed by the uttering of "you know, for kids!" never gets old, even if the movie's poster somewhat spoils the joke. While the sequence detailing the creation and distribution of the Hula Hoop, I don't think I could you ask for a better fast paced quirky montage. Likewise the (almost literal) Deus Ex Machina ending could have easily come off as a copout but I feel is rescued from being so from the plot element of the blue letter; I completely forgot that even existed until the angel of Warren Hudsucker reminds a suicidal Norville about it; now that's a sign of an engaging film.

Where has this movie been all my life? It is basically about a newbie mailroom boy who gets promoted to the president of a company because the CEO wants a proxy to help crash the stock into the ground so that they can buy it cheap and have no outside public investors. But the mailroom boy played my the amazing Tim Robbins has a circle drawn on a piece of paper and etc, etc, etc go watch this movie. It is a larger than life comedy meets film noir meets art-deco meets whatever it wants to be. What a tour 'de force when it comes to world building! The script does drag towards the end and the end itself is a pickle of a problem but all is forgiven because most of this film is brilliant.

First, it looks great and for moments, the architecture is awesome like Batman or Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.The main character seems to be nice, but is he?He has given one task, which he won't do. Instead of giving the blue letter, he start to promote himself and his big idea. He has also double standards as he fires the piccolo for doing the same thing. Note that piccolo did his own works very well. And finally, he overtook the company by using the letter he has stolen.He wont care much about people around him. Saving the beautiful lady and giving her a job? Well, he seems to be more interested of what his 'secretary' does on her free time than on her 'job'. Also, he threats people when drunk.And the moral lesson: No matter if you are competent or work hard, some lucky idiot will take it all.

This has got to be the worst performance I have ever seen of Paul Newman. If they had used this for the recipe of his spaghetti sauce, ugh.I think this movie might have been better made in the 1950's as it seems that far out of touch with the 1990's. The want ad in the newspaper says it all when it says "want a job where you slave for hours on end with no little or no pay? Work at HudsuckerActually it might take that much work to like this movie. When Robert Osborne introduced it on TCM he mainly mentioned the big names in the cast and the fact that the Coen's got their start with 8MM films. Think they were still doing that when they wrote and filmed this one. They were obviously too big for their britches here as this film falls far short of what they were trying for.There is a rumor that the real movie was put in a port-o-john on the film location by mistake and this is the out takes?