I Heart Huckabees

One of the best messed up movies ever. Paradoxically uneven, lame , funny and poignant at various times throughout the entire movie, it is still worth seeing. Boasting an eclectic all star cast who at times make it hard to tell if they are playing it straight or parodying life, it raises existential questions about life that are common to us all.

One of the biggest influences for the ideas presented in David O. Russell's 'I Heart Huckabees' was 9/11. He is quoted as saying in Film Comment Magazine, 'For about two months after 9/11, people were asking really profound questions about reality and existence-and then it was back to business as usual.' Indeed this seems to be the case whenever bad things seem to happen in life as people search for the reasoning behind the events and for a meaning to their own existence. Disillusionment often takes place for many affected by tragedy, as has happened to the characters in 'I Heart Huckabees.' From an activist fighting urban sprawl to a firefighter blaming the worlds ills on petroleum hungry nations, 'I Heart Huckabees' presents profound questions about existence with a unique comic approach.

After seeking the reasoning behind a coincidental meeting, Albert (Jason Schwartzman), an activist/poet, seeks the help of some existential detectives, Bernard and Vivian (Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin). They agree to study his case by spying on his every day activity and getting into his psyche. In an attempt to help Albert seek answers to his profound questions, Bernard and Vivian join Albert with a disillusioned firefighter named Tommy (Mark Whalberg) who seeks answers to the same questions on life. However, Tommy has a strong bias that all the world's problems result from the exploitation of petroleum. During their investigation into Albert's life, Bernard and Vivian realize that Albert's problems often stem from his struggle to fight the Huckabees Corporation from building on the lands Albert tries in vain to protect- particularly with a corporate salesman named Brad (Jude Law). As Bernard and Vivian further investigate, they realize that Brad and his girlfriend Dawn (Naomi Watts), the sexy image behind Huckabees advertising, have a few of their own existential problems to deal with. Especially Dawn who is completely disillusioned by her own beautiful image, as well as Brad's phony persona. Two schools of thought come into play. One, Bernard and Vivian's viewpoint that everything is connected and the world is not a negative place, but chooses not to deal with its problems. On the other hand, Tommy believes in the viewpoints of a French author named Caterine Vauban (Isabell Huppert) who says that the world is simply a mess, pain and anger are present and the only way to deal with it is to just except it. So who is right and who is wrong? The film's message is that neither is truly wrong or right, but the two must meet somewhere in the middle. What's more, perceptions have an important role in this film. Life is often what you make it. A person can be a phony individual and simply jump on the bandwagon of what is popular to seek approval and acceptance. Or, they could ask themselves if they really believe in certain viewpoints and question the right and wrong that exists in our complex, modern world.

At first glance, with the film's slapstick, yet witty intellectual dialogue combined with unique visuals, it would seem that this is the product of Charlie Kaufman. But Russell's ideas are undeniably his own and have been pondered upon in his mind for years. The director of the Gulf-War drama/comedy, 'Three Kings,' and 'Flirting with Disaster' has made one of 2004s best films. 'I Heart Huckabees' is filled with three-dimensional characters and crisp-sounding dialogue that will leave you chuckling hours after seeing the film. Most importantly, it has ideas that most Hollywood executives fear to take on because of our very conventional societal viewpoints. ****

Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman - Rushmore) is an urban guerrilla. A freedom fighter against Urban Sprawl and Corporate-sponsored Over-Development. At least this is how he likes to think of himself. In reality he's a self-obsessed insecure neurotic, and his environmental action group 'Open Spaces' is having little success in the face of their nemesis, the Huckabees corporation. That is until Brad Stand (Jude Law) steps in. As the caring face of Huckabees he sets up a co-operative group with 'Open Spaces' and shows that corporate entities and environmental groups can work together for the good of the community.

Again, that's how Brad likes to think of his work but he's not a happy man. His mental wellbeing is unravelling, his home life is not good, and his work is beginning to suffer. His wife is Dawn Campbell (Naomi Watts - Mulholland Drive), she is the gorgeous face, body and voice of the Huckabees corporation. That is until she discovers that life is meaningless, we are all simply atoms caught up in a never-ending cycle, and identity is an illusion.

She discovers this through the work of Bernard (Dustin Hoffman) and Vivian (Lily Tomlin), a husband and wife existential detective agency. They are hired by Albert to investigate why he feels so empty in his life, and to answer his number one question - what is the meaning of life. They observe him 24 hours a day and investigate all other relationships in his life. This leads them to Dawn, who starts wearing dungarees and a babies bonnet after their "treatment".

Meanwhile Tommy Corn (Mark Wahlberg - Boogie Nights) is a client of Bernard's and Vivian's agency. He is going through a crisis. An ex-pupil of Bernard and Vivian's, a Russian Nihilist Existentialist called Caterine Vauban (Isabelle Huppert) has sent him her book, on why Nihilism holds the answers he seeks. He comes to believe this is correct and Bernard and Vivian believe he needs the help of an "existential partner" and introduces him to Albert. He try's to convince Albert Nihilism is the way forward, but Albert falls in love with Caterine and finds out it isn't.

Being billed as an "Existential Comedy" I've been meaning to see 'I Heart Huckabees since it was originally released about 6 months ago, but never got round to it. Totally kicking myself now cause it was absolutely superb. Awesome soundtrack, inventive and original cinematography, some amazing performances and most importantly a great story. Directed and co-written by David O. Russell (along with Jeff Baena) who last gave us 'Three Kings', the well-received anti-war comedy drama set in the first Iraq war. I personally didn't think 'Three Kings' lived up to the hype, an enjoyable film sure, but not particularly ground breaking or terribly thought provoking.

'I Heart Huckabees' blows 'Three Kings' away, the dialogue has so many levels it's hard to peel them away, but as Bernard teaches "it's all connected". The soundtrack is from the always-awesome Jon Brion who has given us the great music to some of the best films of recent years such as 'Magnolia', 'Punch Drunk Love' and 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'. The performances are powerhouses, Law and Watts both standing out as two of the finest young actors in the world today. Watts steals the show thought, surpassing her turn in one of my all-time faves, 'Mulholland Drive'. The film's main theme is one of anti-corporatism, but it isn't so pervasive as to effect the overall upbeat feeling of enlightenment and acceptance the film immerses us in.

The best part of the film for me was the inventive use of the visuals to perfectly illustrate scientific and philosophical ideas. It's pure eye candy, sections of the film peeling away, mixing with other areas of the screen to form new pictures, showing us how everything can be deconstructed. We are all the same. It's all just atoms, identity is an illusion, we are all connected.

'I Heart Huckabees' is released on DVD in the UK today.

I suppose the highest reach any artist can have is to create something so carefully placed and shaped that it grows into unknown, unseen corners of the word and absorbs things beyond the artist's reach. Such things — I would call this "real" art — must be a dream for many.

Film makes this harder in a way, because many of the conventions now demand that characters, if not situations, be "real" and that story arcs take predictable form.

So usually what screenwriters play with is the causal dynamics of the world. I only know well one other of Russell's films "Flirting," which seemed as though it was skirting too close to the edges of romantic comedy. That's the territory of Wes Anderson and not capable of doing more than amusing.

This is different, this. Sure, it has large character strokes that are comic, or seem so. But what it does is redefine the world in a way that clarifies and makes for that spongelike quality of real art.

The setup now is that most of the world is wrapped as a character, a large department store chain called Huckabees. The situation deals with folks who support and/or resist it in minor ways. The pretty "voice," the advertisements, the poems, a benefit show, these "folds" in the movie (each a small, similar movie) are played with in very clever ways.

Hoffman's character goes further to isolate the main character from the movie by putting him in a bad so he can get to his inner movie. Another character played by Markie Mark (amazingly well) has had his reality scrambled by 9-11. The two, later joined by the Huckabee's "voice," settle into a search for the form of movie for their lives.

Hoffman and Tomlin represent one cinematic philosophy. Isabelle Huppert — a sort of icon for new new wave European cinema — represents that notion of cinematic wrapping and competes with the "existential detectives," Hoffman and Tomlin for control over our three, four with Laws' character.

They represent that uniquely American notion of having a character in the story, usually a detective literally, that stands between the viewer and the story, in both, unraveling both. They "watch." The story itself isn't strong enough to sustain this fabricated notion, and resorts by the end more and more on simple comedy and strokes from romantic movies. It ends happily, it seems, which is a dangerous flaw.

This does well in its first half in giving us something that qualifies as worthwhile. I does, and I recommend it to you. Its more than mere quirky charm and you really might find your mind, even your soul being competed for.

The last part, all that business about Laws' character, was necessitated so that there would be a story, and actual story so we could justify continuing to watch. But the cost is too high because it negates the tone of the first part. Would Charlie Kaufmann have been clever enough to write his way out of the problem? You can spend the second half of this wondering how, and the first half getting yourself into this delicious dilemma.

Ted's Evaluation -- 3 of 3: Worth watching.

This film was amazing. I'm still not sure if I've completely figured it out, but I thoroughly enjoy the attempt. The entire trip was something fully unexpected from the barrage of F-bombs that makes up the first five minutes to the alluded to (but nonetheless unexpected) cameo of Shania Twain. It's near impossible to explain what the film is actually about in this space, so you'll have to settle for this: The always hilarious Lily Tomlin and the wonderful Dustin Hoffman play a couple of "existential detectives" hired by Jason Schwartzman (in perhaps his best role) to investigate a series of "coincidences" involved a very tall African man. Schwartzman is the head of an environmentalist group trying to make a deal with the Huckabees department store to save a marsh (Jude Law plays the Huckabees exec and Naomi Watts his wife--a Huckabees commercial model). Mark Wahlberg shows one of his best performances thus far as a fireman who has also hired the "existential duo" for help with the Big Questions. Jon Brion provides yet another truly original score (not as eccentric and beautiful as Eternal Sunshine, but definitely more involved than Punch Drunk Love). In short, this film is a masterpiece for everyone involved.