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The Hudsucker Proxy Details

1994 DVD Certificate PG.gif
  • Rated:
  • 70
  • from 8467 members

A naive business graduate is installed as president of a manufacturing company as part of a stock scam Read more

Starring Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Paul Newman
Director Joel Coen
Genres Drama

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The Hudsucker Proxy

A naive business graduate is installed as president of a manufacturing company as part of a stock scam

Starring Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Paul Newman
Director Joel Coen
Studio UNIVERSAL PICTURES VIDEO
Run time DVD: 1 hr 46 mins
Certificate DVD Certificate PG.gif
Genres Drama
Language English
Released DVD: 13 Dec 2004
Production year: 1994
Format DVD
  • Critics' reviews (3) of The Hudsucker Proxy

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  • 4 stars out of 5

    More Capra-Coen than Capra-corn, this is a throwback to the good old days of the screwball comedy. When Joel and Ethan Coen pay tribute to a period or a style of film-making, however, they never slavishly re-create, instead always managing to impart some of their own unique vision. In The Hudsucker Proxy they marry the Art Deco designs of the 1930s with the go-get-'em attitudes of the 1950s to fashion a parable that might just have something to say about America in the 1990s. And, if they miss the odd trick in saluting the good old days of Frank Capra and that harder-bitten director of screwball comedy Howard Hawks, it has to be said that a Coen misfire easily outguns the best work of many of their contemporaries. Mocking the “anything is possible” ethos of the Truman era, this is a classic “little man against the system” scenario, with Tim Robbins wonderfully ingenuous as the mail room nobody who hits gold when he invents the Hula-Hoop. In attempting to portray the kind of heartless villains associated with Edward Arnold and Eugene Pallette, Paul Newman mistakes excessive for comic, unlike Jennifer Jason Leigh, whose impression of Rosalind Russell doing a Katharine Hepburn is a hoot. Special mention, too, for cinematographer Roger Deakins and the art department (led by Dennis Gassner) because, for all its strengths as a comedy, this is also a visual triumph.

    • Radio Times
  • 2 stars out of 4

    Clever and enjoyable pastiche of Hollywood comedies of the 40s, close in spirit to Preston Sturges with an ending straight out of Frank Capra. It is stylized, stylish and civilized entertainment.

    • Halliwell's Film Guide
  • Most helpful member's review of The Hudsucker Proxy

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  • 88 out of 93 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 2 stars [Highly rated reviewer]

    Misses the mark

    This flim tries hard to make likable characters and have quirky scissorhandesque scenes, but just doesn't quite get there.

    The characters are not endearing enough or particularly interesting and there are some scenes which try to be humourously over the top arty, where I just found myself fast-forwarding out of irritation (such as the lift operator dragging himself across the carpet after being fired, and the angel desdending as time is stood still).

    Part of the problem is Tim Robbins I think, I just don't feel he makes contact with an audience. Jennifer Jason leigh adopts an irritating and unconvincing accent also.

    It just does not reach any depth of feeling.

      • Rip from Manchester
  • Most recent members' review of The Hudsucker Proxy

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  • 3 out of 3 people found this review helpful

    Rated - 0 stars

    Unwatchable

    Over the top stylized nonsense, avoid.

      • Viewer29 from Grantham
  • News and features

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    Fast Freddie

    Paul Newman 1925-2008

    • 29 Sep 2008

    One of Hollywood’s most popular and admired stars for 50 years, Paul Newman died Friday from cancer. He was 83. Newman was the kind of actor who gave celebrity a good name. An activist who worked to support environmental causes and sick and disadvantaged kids, he launched his own brand of salad dressing in 1982, promising to donate all the profits to charities; more than $200 million to date. The images come flooding back. There are the obvious ones, like riding a cycle in Butch Cassidy... Read more

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Rating breakdown

8,467 Member ratings
  • 100
885
  • 90
928
  • 80
2,170
  • 70
1,847
  • 60
1,358
  • 50
581
  • 40
334
  • 30
160
  • 20
141
  • 10
63

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