Ready to Rent Ready to Rent (March 18, 2005)

I Heart Huckabees

Fox Home Video VHS & DVD 1 hr 46 mins Director: David O. Russell

The comedy of existential dread is churned into a palpable mass in director David O. Russell's "I Heart Huckabees," one of the strangest and goofiest movies of 2004. Bordering on pretentiousness but never dull, the film is digestible due to the deadpan deliveries of every actor present (in body at least) and its breezy stylizations. It also owes a huge debt to director Wes Anderson, whose actor Jason Schwartzman (Max in Anderson's "Rushmore") is a mark of familiarity, along with the film's tone. It could be construed as plagiarism if it weren't for the fact that Anderson has stopped making enjoyable films for audiences, whereas I not only found "I Heart Huckabees" to be entertaining but strangely moving as well.

The film plays like a live-action version of Richard Linklater's "Waking Life," sans the lofty symbolism. The film opens with Albert (Schwartzman - one of the highlights of the film) trudging through a compact wetlands space cursing as if it were the only energy propelling him. Albert is an eco-activist (so was director Russell in the not-so-eco-friendly '80s) whose frustrations have come to a head with the Huckabee corporation, which wants to open a supermart "adjacent" to the space. The Huckabees head PR man Brad Stand (a particularly randy Jude Law) supposedly believes in the town's beautification but he is too caught up in his own corporate image, which is evident in his locker room, mantra-like story of how he deceitfully fed Shania Twain a tuna fish sandwich.

What is really bugging Albert, however, is a series of coincidences, all revolving around the three meetings of the same African exchange student in one day. It drives him to seek the help of Vivian and Bernard (Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffmann - both doing some of their most enjoyable work in years), an "existential" detective team that helps to decipher the supposed chaotic nature of their clients' personal universes. It is here that Albert meets the film's most inventive creation, Tommy, a surly fireman racked with anger and fear over "that September thing." Tommy is a wily exaggeration of the concerned citizen, whose anger toward the oil companies, military industrial complex and exported labor all end in a type of crazed fit.

Although it may sound like a drag, "I Heart Huckabees" does not feel weighted. Russell and screenwriter Jeff Baena have infused the labyrinth of philosophies and ideals into dialog that is delivered in "Dragnet" monotones so we cannot help but admire the actors' stamina. There is no plot per se - Isabel Huppert shows up as a nihilist who seduces Albert away from the eternal hope of Vivian and Bernard but it does not seem to matter because we are inebriated from the tone of the film. It is a movie of throwaway passages; if one does not work there is another to make up for it. My favorite is when Jude Law discovers his true nature and repeatedly intones, "How am I not myself" and is joined in by Vivian and Bernard, who begin to chant it with real concern and pure bliss. -Joe Ramirez

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