The Tampa Tribune from Tampa, Florida • 66

Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins) moves swiftly and unexpectedly from the mail room to the boardroom in "The. Hudsucker Proxy." Coemis' sttoclk coses by 'Proxy' Now Playing WHAT: The Hudsucker Proxy CRITIC'S RATING: 'z MOVIE BOARD RATING: PG STARS: Tim Robbins, Paul Newman, Jennifer Jason Leigh DIRECTOR: Joel Coen PLOT SUMMARY: Naive newcomer plays corporate game. RUNNING TIME: 109 minutes WHERE: Northdale Court in Tampa Movies are rated from zero to four stars. in "Arizona" H.I. McDonough (Nicolas Cage) worked for Hudsucker Industries during a brief stint between armed robberies.

The Coens director-writer Joel and producer-writer Ethan turn a classic Horatio Alger tale into a hilariously off-kilter pastiche of pastiches. The more you love movies, the more gags you'll catch. References range from old favorites Howard Hawks and Preston Sturges to stylish modern radicals such as Terry Gilliam (especially and Sam Raimi (the "Evil Dead" director, an old Coen pal who helped write the script and who shares their love of eye-boggling tomfoolery). Robbins, in a frenetically twisted tribute to the old Gary Cooper-James Stewart types, is amiably earnest as the dense-but-honest kid who steps off a bus and into the presidency of a monstrous corporation. Paul Newman scowls and sparkles as the scrappy manipulator whose path to power runs right through Norville.

The fun is in the details. The Coens turn the delivery of an important "blue letter" into a miniature comic tour de force. And you have to smile when two seen-it-all cabbies narrate the initial encounter between Norville and the too-smart reporter with the phony Katharine Hepburn accent (Jennifer Jason Leigh). The action spins circles with headlines and Hula The sibling filmmakers, armed with their biggest budget yet, turn Horatio Alger on his cinematic ear. By Bob Ross LIKE A FRANK Capra classic, the movie begins with its hero about to, as the omniscient narrator puts it, "jelly up the sidewalk." Why would young Norville Barnes (Tim Robbins, a gawky tower of wide-eyed innocence) want to die so soon after arriving in the big city from his Indiana home? The answer comes as a feature-length flashback called "The Hudsucker Proxy," a straight-faced satire that cheerfully goofs on the cheesy cynicism of the '90s, the gray-minded capitalism of the '50s and Hollywood's art-deco breeziness of the '30s.

After confusing (and, many say, ignoring) the mass audience with two quirky, critic-pleasing puzzlers gangster melodrama "Miller's Crossing" and existential Hollywood fable "Barton Fink" the notorious Coen brothers have reverted to the camera-swooping, jaw-dropping, surrealistic splashiness that made their 1987 kidnap comedy, "Raising Arizona," such a rousing, watch-it-repeatedly success. Indeed, the Coens' first "Hudsucker" reference was Hoops, beatniks and butterfly nets. Peter Gallagher imitates Dean Martin, Steve Buscemi speaks jive in a juice bar and William Cobbs keeps cosmic time from inside a towering building that looks like a Frank Lloyd Wright design as filmed by Leni Riefenstahl. Charles Durning, as the original old man Hudsucker, begins and ends the action with heart-stopping, plot-defining shocks. a.

TJ Weddflim daze rr-t f- i 1 I rx-' i i. if Airy romantic comedy is a treat By Bob Ross ELTON JOHN CROONS the Gershwin lament, "But Not for Me," during the opening credits. The musical joke pays off when we realize that the song describes the lamentable love life of the main character in "Four Weddings and a Funeral," a deliciously airy romantic comedy that makes us laugh and reminds us that spring is here. As John's radio voice gives way to a shrill wake-up alarm, we learn in rapid order that it is Saturday, Charles is late for a wedding, his (purely platonic) housemate Scarlett Now Playing WHAT: Four Weddings and a Funeral CRITIC'S RATING: V2 MOVIE BOARD RATING: (profanity, adult situations and references) STARS: Hugh Grant, Andie MacDowell DIRECTOR: Mike Newell PLOT SUMMARY: Boy meets girl by attending other people's weddings. RUNNING TIME: 117 minutes WHERE: For locations, see Movie Shorts, Page 15; see Page 8 for movie times.

Movies are rated from zero to four stars. i Carrie (Andie MacDowell) and Charles (Hugh Grant) meet and woo at social functions in "Four Weddings and a Funeral." Continued on Page 30.