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Ten Days Of The Coen Brothers: Day Four

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10 years ago

March 1, 2016

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Corporate Irresponsibility

♦ With the release of Hail, Caesar! in the UK on 4 March, Tripwire kicks off a look at all of the Coen Brothers films released to date. Yesterday we took a look at their fourth film Barton Fink (1991) and now our editor-in-chief Joel Meadows takes a look at their fifth effort, The Hudsucker Proxy (1994).

The Hudsucker Proxy

Director: Joel Coen

Stars: Tim Robbins, Paul Newman, Jennifer Jason Leigh

Fast-forward three years after Barton Fink and we have The Hudsucker Proxy, a film which owes lots to the screwball comedies of the 1940s, with a lighter tone than Barton Fink, which signals another shift in genre. Tim Robbins plays Norville Barnes, a small-town business school graduate who is brought in as part of a stock scam by the company’s duplicitous vice president Sidney Mussburger (Paul Newman). But Mussburger and the company’s board have underestimated Barnes and reporter Amy Archer (Jason Leigh).

The film met a decidedly lukewarm reception when it was released as it is so different to Barton Fink, but this did it a disservice. Robbins is very good as the stooge who turns out to be a lot sharper than anyone gave him credit for, and Newman is suitably sinister as the man bent on taking over the company. The weak link here is Jennifer Jason Leigh, who tries to channel Katherine Hepburn but doesn’t quite succeed, and so she comes across as rather irritating in places.

However visually there are some nice touches, with the Hudsucker Building itself almost like another character in the film, and it does display their customary deft touch with cameos from Steve Buscemi as the barman at a beatnik establishment, John Mahoney once again as hard-bitten editor who everyone just calls Chief here and Bruce Campbell as wisecracking newspaper man Smitty.

Robbins is a very good actor as he showed in The Shawshank Redemption and it is his everyman qualities on show here which helps to lift The Hudsucker Proxy beyond just a pretty fable about corporations in America. Newman’s presence also brings a lot to the table too and it is proof of his exceptional abilities as an actor that at this late stage in his career, he was still able to put it a performance of that quality.

Although it cannot be counted as one of their best films, The Hudsucker Proxy is a perfectly serviceable comedy drama with some top-notch performances and some inventive visual motifs. What is impressive about The Coens is that even their less creatively satisfying efforts are still worth watching. Check it out for Tim Robbins and Paul Newman, who do have genuine chemistry here.

JOEL MEADOWS