You know why I give this a full price feature rating? Because, for your money, you are not going to do any better than this for a while for a romantic comedy with a real actual obstacle to love in it. By now you should have surmised from the preview that Reese Witherspoon?s character, a successful New York fashion designer, is engaged to a rich guy, but is actually still married to a boy from her Alabama past. OK, that?s great. In a typical movie with such a formula, Boy From Past (in this case the delightful Josh Lucas as Jake) is a winsome treasure you can?t imagine her ever having left behind, and the fiance (Patrick Dempsey, channeling JFK Jr.) is a total heel of some kind. Sweet Home Alabama does not insult you with these formulaic generalities, and it also manages to breathe life into the sub-genre of “follow your bliss” as well. My adjectives are “sweet, cute, charming, and lovely,” but after some thought, I need to add “genuine” (with a Southern accent of course).
Reese Witherspoon, whom I regretfully once lambasted on these pages, has won me over forever. I mean, look at Election, Legally Blonde, and now Sweet Home Alabama. Where is her Oscar? Oh yeah, the Academy doesn?t reward comedy. She would have to assassinate Tom Hanks in order to get on my bad side now. She?s completely believable as polished New York designer and honky tonk queen – she?s got a flawless side and a mean side, she?s richly drawn and totally every girl you know. (Except for looking that amazing after having 2 kids!) In Pigeon Creek, in her designer duds and sleek city walking-fast-with-a-cel phone vibe, she seems out of place?and not. Her quandary does not stop there.
Enter the guys. Dreamboats both of them, with totally opposite redeeming and irredeeming qualities, you can?t choose for yourself, much less for her. For once the audience doesn?t spend the whole movie rolling their eyes at how stupid the heroine is. In fact, you don?t know what she is going to do until the credits roll, practically! And on a certain level, both choices are right. Candice Bergen as Dempsey?s mom is delicious. Everyone, “good” and “bad” in this film surprised me with their level of honest humanity ? embarrassing parents, impatient in-laws/in-laws-to-be, friends, everyone. For that alone the screenwriters Douglas Eboch, C. Jay Cox, director Andy Tennant, and Rick Parks should be lauded.
Andy Tennant directed the unfortunate (but with some great moments) Fools Rush In and the widely underappreciated Anna and the King and Ever After. What Tennant seems to recognize in all these films is human reaction and interaction. He doesn?t sacrifice the story to how people “should” behave but how they would. A person with real class would not turn into a bastard all of a sudden, or vice versa, and some friendships can outlast one fight. He doesn?t speak the shorthand that Hollywood has created for us, and his scripts benefit from it. Maybe that is why his movies aren?t always appreciated ? in Ever After, he doesn?t present the wicked stepmother as “wicked” with one side comment, he builds her, and still shows her side of the story. Maybe all his films speak to the dysfunctional woman inside me, so find yours and take her. I seriously loved this film, and I hope you will too. And the soundtrack is great!
In honor of the recent death of Arthur Melin (7/8/02), the man who really invented the Hula Hoop in 1958, and the Frisbee, I am resending my Hudsucker Proxy review. Ok, I did rewrite some of it too.
This movie came and went in theatres, not helped by its weird name and lack of car chases. It’s written and directed by the Coen brothers (Joel and Ethan), best known recently for Fargo, but also loved for Raising Arizona and Miller’s Crossing, Barton Fink, Blood Simple, and O Brother Where Art Thou. It?s about a man named Norville Barnes who accidentally set off the Hula Hoop craze after World War II, but it?s also about hubris. Released in 1994, Hudsucker was a fictionalized account of a real event told in a sort of hiccup of time. Kind of. Oh and then there is the almost Gilliamesque approach to the inner workings of Big Business. It’s an homage to Frank Kapra films (like It’s a Wonderful Life), and it has that same sentimental feel, but it also has amazingly funny, fast, brilliant moments which you just have to see to get.
Tim Robbins plays Norville Barnes, a sap who accidentally vaults his way to the top of Hudsucker Industries by spitting out an idea the board is sure will fail but takes off in a way nothing has taken off since marketing unremembered
Hudsucker is not bloody like Fargo, or farcical like Arizona. It’s…classic-feeling. A host of familiar supporting actors buoys Robbins – notably Paul Newman. Jennifer Jason Leigh is the dame, and I will admit it took me three viewings of this movie to get used to her mannerisms and voice, but she is just right. She?s got the same flat, brassy tone of all the greats of that era, but it feels strange and out of place in a modern film, despite being so “right.” This movie is delicious like ice cream. My friend Sam says, “You can’t write dialogue like this,” yet they did and it’s great. Rich, textured, and if you’re one of those gaffe watchers on the hunt for continuity errors, you won’t find a one, despite amazingly complicated background stuff.
The film is shot with razor sharp and elegant precision and beauty, painted by Carter Burwell?s portentious score and the visually lyric period details. Robbins is a delicious choice to play such a figure, making the logical ego transition of instant success, while retaining his unique sense of innocence and humor. “You know, for kids?” is all the marketing the Hula Hoop really needed to launch it into a major craze, both in the film and real life ? but the movie is about much more. And it?s quite funny, in the way character studies can be funny.
As with all Coen brothers movies, Hudsucker has an angle, an edge, a line of humor few filmmakers cross. Since this film came out before Oscar darling Fargo and did not have the high profile silliness of Raising Arizona, it is frequently overlooked. However, most of the people I chat with choose this as one of their favorites. It?s more about the ridiculous nature of Big Business and the beauty of inspiration and gumption and honesty. It is also an elegant 1940?s period piece that makes fun of itself, complete with gumshoe narration by one character about another, a wiseacre reporter named Smitty (Bruce Campbell) and smart, sassy dialogue. It bears up with repeated viewings, and the bizarre dreamy/out of time sequences make more sense the more you live with them.
Viva la Hula Hoop!
