This is an
imaginative creation that reminds us of the good old days of movie making. It’s
fast paced, a bit over the top, loud acting and rapid fire dialogues, greyish, subdued
colours and a highly imaginative and ingenious plot. And all that is expected
as it’s co-written, directed and produced by Joel and Ethan Coen with Sam Raimi as their co-writer.
But what’s quite
unexpected is the total effect it all creates. This is funny, moving and memorable.
The plot, well it
starts off with Tim Robbins as a simple minded business-school graduate who is
unable to find a decent job so he takes whatever he can get. And what he gets
is a job as a mailroom clerk delivering mail to the bigwigs in Hudsucker
Industries’ office.
Meanwhile, the Hudsucker
founder and president climbs on the conference table during a meeting and runs
and takes a leap out of the top floor window of the Hudsucker high rise
building. Now Paul Newman is a conniving, foxy and powerful member of the board
of directors who knows that Hudsucker's stock shares will soon be sold to the
public, so he hatches an ingenious plan to become the top boss of the company
by making the stock price fall to the depths at which point he will pick them
up at the lowest possible price thus become the controlling member. The
jumping of the boss from the window isn’t enough to kill share prices, he needs
And hence he
hires the mailroom idiot Tim Robbins as the President. And Tim Robbins comes up
with the launch of the next big product. He presents a circle. A zero, a hula-hoop!
A totally idiotic product which is ridiculous and has no chance of success. And
much to everyone’s surprise Paul Newman flags the product through. Now Newman
is sure he will be a ‘Newman’ soon, because it is evident that Proxy President,
is going to drive the shares into the ditch and make him stinking rich (sorry
for the rhymes and the puns). But such is the effect of this brilliant film.
I wonder why this
isn’t so well known, because this is what movies once were. Fabulous beginning,
entertaining middle and an ending that’s so imaginative that I’ve never seen
anything like this since. You could also call it the story of the Hula-hoop, a
zero that made it’s inventor a hero.
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