[8]

Tim Robbins (The Shawshank Redemption) stars as an unwitting mail room clerk thrust into the office of CEO at a mythical uber-corporation when the board members decide to send the company’s stocks into a nose dive. But the board, headed by a coolly evil Paul Newman, doesn’t count on their newly anointed dim-wit to invent the next materialistic rage — the hula hoop. Under the direction of Joel and Ethan Coen (Raising Arizona, No Country for Old Men), The Hudsucker Proxy is a comic and visual marvel, probably the closest thing we’ll ever get to an art-deco Tex Avery cartoon by way of Frank Capra. The supporting cast includes Charles Durning, John Mahoney, and Bruce Campbell, but it’s Jennifer Jason Leigh who steals the show as a fast-talking news reporter who falls for Robbins while simultaneously exposing him as a fraud. Robbins and Leigh do fine on a high wire act here, anchoring highly-stylized characterizations in just enough reality to make you care about them. The film goes into full-blown fairy tale mode in the final act, and earns enough poetic license to do so. This quirky mix of movie magic is enhanced by Roger Deakins’ cinematography, Dennis Gassner’s production design, and Carter Burwell’s music (borrowing generously from Khachaturian).