Review of The Hudsucker Proxy (1994) by Mark S — 28 Jan 2009

I'm just going to get this out there right off the bat: I love Coen brothers films. However, The Hucksucker Proxy, after being just recently viewed, has efficiently displaced The Big Lebowski as my least favorite in the Coen filmography. I could not enjoy this film at all. And I tried.

The talented directors give the film a great look and try to achieve a satirical commentary on the old Hollywood classics. Paul Newman is great as usual. I even didn't have a problem with Tim Robbins. I did have a huge problem with Jennifer Jason Leigh. While I'm sure she has talent, it definitely does not extend to portraying a fast-talking newspaperwoman a la Hildy Johnson. If I were casting this role, I would not expect the actress to arise to the greatness of Rosalind Russell's performance. That just wouldn't be fair. But I would expect the actress to be able to pull off the role off in a convincing manner. JJL did not even come close in my opinion. She delivered her lines fast--that's it. There was no heart or believability to it. She was very distracting.

This film also lacks all the great characters that makes the Coen brothers' films so watchable. The Hudsucker Proxy features bland (though way over the top) characters that you just aren't that interested in.

Another great strength of the Coens is all of the classic narrative motifs and references that run through the plots (The Odyssey, free will, et al). Here we follow the Rota Fortunae, which is great, except for the fact that the film is much too campy to appreciate such narrative structure. Please give me Macbeth now! (Or at least Throne of Blood for a Kurosawa take.).