Review of I ♥ Huckabees (2004) by Dustin M — 10 Jan 2011

I Heart Huckabees, from maverick director David O. Russell (Spanking The Monkey, Flirting With Disaster, Three Kings) is a movie that sharply divides people. For some, it's comedy gold. For others, it drives them crazy. Russell attempts to create a comedy that walks a tightrope between comedy and metaphysics. Can it delve into incoherence and go off the rails? Sure it can. But it's hard to hate on a movie that is so willing to fall on its face.

Jason Schwartzman, in what remains one of his richest roles following Rushmore, is Albert, a tormented environmentalist having an existential crisis. After a series of strange coincidences he's experienced Albert hires the Jaffes, Bernard (Dustin Hoffman) and Vivian (the priceless Lily Tomlin), a married couple who also work as 'existential detectives'. The Jaffes try getting to the bottom of Albert's angst, much like Russell himself does. His camera and sharp eye takes a look into our consumer-driven culture, and wonders if anything substantial is left. That leads to Huckabees, the 'everything store' that poses a threat to Albert's Open Spaces program. That effort is lead by Albert's nemesis, Brad (Jude Law), a Huckabees exec boning the store's sexy spokesmodel Dawn (Naomi Watts, showing great comic talents). Brad and Dawn epitomize wrong with consumerism. Things take a shift when Brad hires the Jaffes to look into his soul as well, but Dawn becomes more affected and begins wearing an Amish bonnet and shunning make-up.

Russell guides his band of actors to places they had never explored before. Law and Watts enter farce territory for the fist time, and Hoffman and Tomlin make a terrific screwball couple. Then there's Isabelle Huppert as Catherine, the cerebral, cynical counterpart to the Jaffes, whose philosophy, stated on her business card, states simply: cruelty. manipulation. meaninglessness.

The sharpest performance comes from Mark Wahlberg as Tommy, a firefighter disillusioned by 9/11 with harsh words for Big Oil. He even rides a bike to the scene of fires. Wahlberg is touching and funny at the same time, one of his greatest performances of his career. I Heart Huckabees helps cement Russell as one of modern cinema's great originals.