1/5  Catastrophic. A terrible film.  Ineptly conceived and executed, it's almost impossible to imagine any audience getting anything out of this.

 

2/5  Poor. A bad film.  You should only really sit though this if you’re a big fan of an associated actor or director, otherwise, skip it.

 

3/5  Decent. A good film.  Entertaining enough, but is either deeply flawed or simply lacks anything to make it outstanding.

 

4/5  Recommended. A very strong film.  Highly recommended, particularly to genre fans, but which has some minor problems.

 

5/5  Exceptional. One of the finest of its kind.  A film that should be recommended to any movie lover.

The Hudsucker Proxy

Dir: Joel Coen

Cast: Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Paul Newman

When Waring Hudsucker (Charles Durning) throws himself to his death his controlling interest in the company he founded becomes due to be sold. Wanting to retain control his number two Sidney Mussburger (Newman) suggests that the board appoint an idiot President of the company. That idiot is Norville Barnes (Robbins) a young mailroom clerk.  On hearing of Barnes promotion fast-talkin’, Pulitzer winnin’ reporter Amy Archer (Leigh) smells a rat, and a big story.

The screwball comedy died years ago but Joel and Ethan Coen have long tried to keep its spirit alive. They did it in Raising Arizona and Intolerable Cruelty as well, but never as effectively as in The Hudsucker Proxy.  This is the Coen’s most consistently underrated work; a hugely witty throwback to Hollywood's golden age that grows more entertaining with every viewing.

As ever the Joel and Ethan populate the film with an eclectic cast. Robbins is just perfect as Norville Barnes, who is predictably not as stupid as he looks. Robbins has the gormless thing down, but he's also got such infectious enthusiasm and charm in his performance that, even at his in his most ridiculous moments  (‘You know, for kids’) you root for and believe in Norville.  Jennifer Jason Leigh makes an exceedingly rare foray into comedy here and she shows a great and surprising aptitude for it.  As Amy Archer she channels Rosalind Russell in His Girl Friday, but gives her Katharine Hepburn’s voice. Her dialogue flies at an alarming rate, she must rack up something close to record for the most dialogue spoken in the shortest time in a film, but her crisp delivery lets us hear and savour every joke. Leigh is, without a doubt, the funniest thing in the picture, but she also manages to find emotion in Amy and that makes the romance between her and Robbins play.

The rest of the cast is similarly stellar. Paul Newman chomps both his cigar and the scenery as Mussburger, Jim True is funny as Buzz the lift operator and Bruce Campbell (who has said that working with Leigh was the best, and scariest, time he's had as an actor) has fun as a rival reporter at Amy's paper.

Visually The Hudsucker Proxy is a knockout. The set design is intricate, vast in scale and absolutely beautiful and the Coens make the movie look like it cost a lot more than it probably did. It's the witty script that's the real star though. Surreal but believable, verbose but pointed and, most importantly, bust a gut funny. The Hudsucker Proxy is ideal family viewing and well worth 100 minutes of anyone's time.

Film: 4/5

JJL: 4/5