You know, for kids!

I was late to the Coen Brothers fan party, and did not become a fan of their movies until I recently saw The Big Lebowski last year on DVD. After seeing that great film, I went and saw Joel and Ethan Coens' other great films such as Fargo, O Brother, Where Art Thou, The Ladykillers and Raising Arizona.

For some reason, I never got around to watching The Hudsucker Proxy. I don't know why I didn't devote any time to watch it, it's just one of those movies that you go "hey, that looks good, I'll have to see it some time," but never do. This afternoon, with Munchkin No. 2 sleeping in one arm, and the remote in the other hand, I was flipping the channels until I got to the Independent Film Channel (IFC), which happened to be broadcasting The Hudsucker Proxy. Well, now's my chance, so I sat down on the sofa, and started to watch.

I really enjoyed this movie. It was stylistically like The Big Lebowski with its blend of fantasy and reality, carefully crafted dialogue, larger than life characters, and not to mention a dream sequence. All this mashed into a quirky, funny pic.

Tim Robbins was great as Norville, the wide-eyed and naive man with a dream, and Paul Newman chews the scenery as the conniving and scheming Mussburger. Jennifer Jason Leigh really steals every scene she's in as the fast talking, career minded, Archer (man, I've been a fan of hers since Flesh & Blood!) .

It seems that in every Coen Brothers movie, you have to get into the movie and make sure to carefully watch and listen to every scene, since the Brothers like to put in extra stuff in the frame and dialogue. My nephew came over while in the middle of the movie, and he seemed to enjoy most of it, but he did interrupt me with quite a bit of "what's this..", "why did he...", "who's that..." questions that took me out of the movie experience. Oh well, I still enjoyed it, and plan to rent this (or buy it if it's a decent DVD) in order to catch all the references and moments. I recommend you do the same if you haven't seen this excellent flick.

8^B


Tags: Movies The Hudsucker Proxy Coen Brothers