Director David Russell (who is also the script co-writer) strove mighty hard to bring a Thinking Cineaste's story to the big screen). Described by some as an existential comedy, "I Love Huckabees" tries to reach that philosophical realm through studied and occasionally zany detours into half-baked but well acted themes. It falls a bit short.
Huckabees is a very large store seeking to expand. Apparently it sells everything we'd expect from a high class emporium - like Wal-Mart. A beautiful model, Dawn Campbell (Naomi Watts, a beautiful actress) is their advertising pitch-woman and her boyfriend is the Bright-Boy-Heading-for-the-Executive-Suite, Brad Stand (the very ubiquitous, these days, Jude Law).
But the story opens with environmental activist (extremist, to be sure) Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman). He has a problem. Three supposedly accidental encounters with a young, tall black dude in doorman livery makes him wonder why these meetings have occurred. His concern is obsessive. So he does what any of us would do: he engages the services of "Existential Detectives" (don't bother checking for the nearest local agency in the Yellow Pages). First he's interviewed by Vivian (Lily Tomlin). Accepting the case pro bono (Albert hasn't much money) she shepherds him into an adjacent office to meet her partner and husband, Bernard (the venerable Dustin Hoffman who, clearly, played the role tongue-in-cheek).
The detectives must shadow Albert very closely (including when he's using the can) to determine the nature of his worrisome "coincidences." Meanwhile he's trying to save some marshlands from the omni-voracious Huckabees. And who should be trying to co-opt Albert's coalition of tree-huggers? Brad -suave, smooth-talking, amoral, smilingly relentless Brad. Jude Law imports just the right admixture of innocence and guile here.
Add to this increasingly confusing witches' brew a further character, actually two. The first is professional firefighter and super-environmentalist Tommy Corn (Mark Wahlberg). This guy is so committed to not wasting resources that he rides his bike in full fire gear to calls instead of climbing on bright and shiny Engine 54 with his comrades.
And, lastly, the luminous Isabelle Huppert is author and borderline nihilist Caterine Vauban who either counters the existentialist take of Vivian and Bernard or she's sort of their alter ego. Not clear which and it doesn't matter.
The theme we're repeatedly told is the "inter-connectedness" of mankind. or maybe it's the absence of that quality.
What does matter is the jumbled sequence of scenes ranging from the fantastical to the mundane. Yep, it's a message film and it most reminded me, stylistically, of the recent "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." Minus the mad doctor and sci-fi excesses of that quirky flick, "I Love Huckabees" is right up there in that destined for very early DVD release league.
Good or bad? It depends on the viewer's tolerance for rambling shifts in what isn't a coherent story nor, in truth, an existential one. The younger cast members mesh well together and Watts is a funny cross between a petulant child and a glamorous adult. Hoffman and Tomlin project parental roles for the unruly immature adults, amusingly so, and they make a fine team (this is their first movie together). Huppert is icily and only marginally on board but any chance to see her act is very welcome.
So don't go expecting to leave the theater with new insights about anything.
But enjoy the engaging, frenetic acting by a very talented cast.
7/10
Huckabees is a very large store seeking to expand. Apparently it sells everything we'd expect from a high class emporium - like Wal-Mart. A beautiful model, Dawn Campbell (Naomi Watts, a beautiful actress) is their advertising pitch-woman and her boyfriend is the Bright-Boy-Heading-for-the-Executive-Suite, Brad Stand (the very ubiquitous, these days, Jude Law).
But the story opens with environmental activist (extremist, to be sure) Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman). He has a problem. Three supposedly accidental encounters with a young, tall black dude in doorman livery makes him wonder why these meetings have occurred. His concern is obsessive. So he does what any of us would do: he engages the services of "Existential Detectives" (don't bother checking for the nearest local agency in the Yellow Pages). First he's interviewed by Vivian (Lily Tomlin). Accepting the case pro bono (Albert hasn't much money) she shepherds him into an adjacent office to meet her partner and husband, Bernard (the venerable Dustin Hoffman who, clearly, played the role tongue-in-cheek).
The detectives must shadow Albert very closely (including when he's using the can) to determine the nature of his worrisome "coincidences." Meanwhile he's trying to save some marshlands from the omni-voracious Huckabees. And who should be trying to co-opt Albert's coalition of tree-huggers? Brad -suave, smooth-talking, amoral, smilingly relentless Brad. Jude Law imports just the right admixture of innocence and guile here.
Add to this increasingly confusing witches' brew a further character, actually two. The first is professional firefighter and super-environmentalist Tommy Corn (Mark Wahlberg). This guy is so committed to not wasting resources that he rides his bike in full fire gear to calls instead of climbing on bright and shiny Engine 54 with his comrades.
And, lastly, the luminous Isabelle Huppert is author and borderline nihilist Caterine Vauban who either counters the existentialist take of Vivian and Bernard or she's sort of their alter ego. Not clear which and it doesn't matter.
The theme we're repeatedly told is the "inter-connectedness" of mankind. or maybe it's the absence of that quality.
What does matter is the jumbled sequence of scenes ranging from the fantastical to the mundane. Yep, it's a message film and it most reminded me, stylistically, of the recent "Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind." Minus the mad doctor and sci-fi excesses of that quirky flick, "I Love Huckabees" is right up there in that destined for very early DVD release league.
Good or bad? It depends on the viewer's tolerance for rambling shifts in what isn't a coherent story nor, in truth, an existential one. The younger cast members mesh well together and Watts is a funny cross between a petulant child and a glamorous adult. Hoffman and Tomlin project parental roles for the unruly immature adults, amusingly so, and they make a fine team (this is their first movie together). Huppert is icily and only marginally on board but any chance to see her act is very welcome.
So don't go expecting to leave the theater with new insights about anything.
But enjoy the engaging, frenetic acting by a very talented cast.
7/10