Sunday Matinee is on break until the new year while 12 Days of Christmas runs.
Today’s movie is The Hudsucker Proxy (1994). It’s one of the weaker Coen Brothers’ movies but a weak Coen Brothers’ movie is better than most movies.
The movie starts in December 1958 and Charles Durning, founder and president of Hudsucker Industries has just committed suicide by jumping out of the office board room. Tim Robbins is an innocent naive business graduate who has just got a job in the mail room at Hudsucker. He has big ideas – “You know, for kids.” Paul Newman is a member of the board and wants control of the company. With Durning dead the majority of the companies stock will go on sale to the public January 1st. Newman wants to drive the value of the stock down so that the board members can buy it. And they need an idiot to take the control of the company so the stock value will plummet. Newman picks Robbins.
The film is a throwback to the old screwball comedies of the 1940’s. Some scenes work extremely well but the movie just doesn’t quite click at times. That said it does work enough though to be fairly entertaining and some scenes are hilarious. I’m sure I’ve had a job orientation like this.
