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Life in New York City’s cutthroat business world isn’t all that easy – just ask Waring Hudsucker, chairman of Hudsucker Industries. Well, you could have asked him -- if he hadn’t just taken a jog down his boardroom table (in the middle of a board meeting) and jumped through the 44th-floor (not including the mezzanine) window to his death.
The board, of course, is stunned. And they’re even more stunned to discover that, since Hudsucker had no heirs, his stock will be sold to the public on the first day of the year after he dies. January 1, 1959 is just a month away, and the board has to work fast to keep the stock of out the hands of common riff-raff. So the board -- led by Sidney J. Mussburger (Paul Newman) -- decides to lower customer confidence by replacing Hudsucker with an idiot.
So in walks Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins), a recent graduate of the Muncie (Indiana) School of Business who’s taken a job in Hudsucker’s mailroom in an attempt to start out in the business world.
The board’s plot seems to be working just fine until reporter Amy Archer (Jennifer Jason Leigh) decides to get a closer look at Hudsucker’s new “Idea Man.” Is he really a genius, she wonders, or is he just an idiot?
The Hudsucker Proxy is just one in a long line of films written and directed by the Coen Brothers (who are also responsible for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, The Big Lebowski, Fargo, and others). Unlike most films that try and fail, The Hudsucker Proxy actually reaches your heartstrings and your funny bone. It’s good for a laugh -- and even a bit of a lesson in the end.
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