Set in 1959, "The Hudsucker Proxy" has the feel of a 30s comedy, or it seems to be trying to have that feel. There are some great visuals, but the whole thing left me cold. If this was supposed to capture the fun and repartee of the 30s comedies, it failed miserably for me. Lots of those old comedies had some unbelievable stories, but the character development was such that you had some identification with the people. And the actors had such grace and charm (think Cary Grant and Katharine Hepburn) that you couldn't help but be captivated. Here the story and characters have no basis in reality whatsoever. And you have Tim Robbins giving a performance that looks like he just got out of acting 101. Paul Newman goes through the motions and Jennifer Jason Leigh does a Katharine Hepburn imitation that made me weep with longing for the real thing. Charles Durning is wasted in his two absurd appearances.<br /><br />There were so many things in this movie that made me physically cringe that it took some time after it was over to recover my equilibrium. There is a guy who does a parody of Dean Martin in a scene that comes out of nowhere; I asked myself why that scene was in there, and I found myself asking that about most of the scenes in this movie. There is a bellhop who is a Red Buttons clone and is every bit as irritating as the real person. A scene in a beatnik bar is so clichéd that I feel ashamed to have seen it. <br /><br />"The Hudsucker Proxy" did serve one purpose for me and that was to make me realize that those old 30s and 40s comedies are special. They come from a time and a place that can never be duplicated, with actors for whom there is no replacement.<br /><br />A quote from Paul Newman in this movie summarizes my reaction, "This is embarrassing."