The Hudsucker Proxy (1994)

Directed by Joel Coen. Starring Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Paul Newman, John Mahoney, Jim True, Bill Cobbs, Bruce Campbell, Charles Durning, Patrick Cranshaw, Harry Bugin, Roy Brocksmith, Joe Grifasi, John Seitz, I. M. Hobson. [PG]

After Hudsucker Industries’ founder/president leaps 44 stories to his death (45, counting the mezzanine), board member Newman hatches the plan to promote a dope (Robbins) to replace him so that stock prices will plummet and the directors can buy up controlling interest. Highly-stylized Coen brothers confection hearkens back to the fast-talking screwball comedies of yesteryear; it’s a pastiche without seams, a satire without claws, an homage without triviality, a mimicry without achromatism. Instead, it strives to be the real deal, with the sort of visual ingenuity and narrative surprises the filmmakers are known for (the flashy Art Deco-fascism production design and expressive camera gestures are sensational). Robbins makes for a believable schnook, Leigh is spirited fun as a Rosalind Russell-type (though unconvincing when the script calls for her to drop her cynical guard), Newman’s a hoot as the unflappable villain. Pace flags and artificiality abounds around the two-thirds mark as the formulaic instincts of the plot kick in (the hero’s fall before his redemption). A box office bomb when it was released (the public probably couldn’t be convinced to see a movie with that title); the Coens’ fanbase is too committed to allow one of their finer films to be “unsung,” but this one probably comes the closest.

79/100