Review – The Hudsucker Proxy

For a Coen brothers movie, this film is surprisingly unoriginal. Though functioning largely as a lampoon of 30s-era screwball comedies, it also borrows heavily from Modern Times and The Producers. External sources notwithstanding, however, this is another fine example of the Coens’ own special brand of oddball comedy. Tim Robbins plays a mail room clerk promoted to CEO of a large corporation by stockholders (led by Paul Newman) trying to devalue the company so they can buy it up cheap. Jennifer Jason Leigh does a wonderful job as a fast-talking, Front Page style reporter who seeks to expose the scheme but ends up falling for Robbins in the finest Capra-corn style. Though not exactly the Coens’ finest hour, it’s still a solid picture. Worth seeing