I HEART HUCKABEES by David O. Russell
by Andre Soares
i ♥ huckabees (2004)
Director: David O. Russell. Screenplay: David O. Russell and Jeff Baena. Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Dustin Hoffman, Isabelle Huppert, Jude Law, Lily Tomlin, Mark Wahlberg, Naomi Watts, Tippi Hedren, Talia Shire
SPANKING THE NIETZSCHE
Beginning with Spanking the Monkey (no, it’s not a film about animal abuse), David O. Russell has made a reputation as a director of quirky comedies. i ♥ huckabees is no exception. Its quirkiness, in fact, is by far its most interesting aspect. Not because the comedy works — the film is as funny as a funeral mass — but simply because in this age of formulaic filmmaking, one is shocked to find Hollywood producers backing a movie that is so abrasively unconventional in form and content. The message of i ♥ huckabees is: No manure. No magic. One needs both to achieve enlightenment. It’s too bad that Russell overdoes the manure and completely neglects the magic. (And who had the unenlightened idea to transcribe the "heart" icon as the word "heart" instead of "love"?)
Russell has been at least intermittently funny before, and he has also elicited good performances from cast members — Mary Tyler Moore’s hilarious turn in Flirting with Disaster comes to mind. But he doesn’t succeed on either count here. Perhaps he thought that i ♥ huckabees‘ premise, which revolves around a group of neurotics and "existentialists," would be so hysterical — it isn’t — that he would just kick back, let the camera roll, and allow everything and everyone to get out of control.
In any case, nearly all cast members flounder in this pseudo-existential mess. Jason Schwartzman is insufferable, poor Naomi Watts is an embarrassment to watch, and how can any director make Lily Tomlin unfunny? [Perhaps the explanation can be found in the i ♥ huckabees outtakes] Dustin Hoffman (barely) manages to stay afloat, but it’s only Mark Wahlberg’s neurotic fireman that gets a few chuckles.
Isabelle Huppert’s presence in this American film remains a mystery until we get to her kinky sex moment next to a mud puddle. Or it could be that the free-spirited Huppert gets a kick out of crossing the Atlantic every few years to appear in a dismal Hollywood film. (See Heaven’s Gate and The Bedroom Window.) If so, she couldn’t have made a better choice not to showcase her considerable talents.
What David O. Russell should have realized is that an unusual theme may result in an unusual movie — but not necessarily a good one. For the unusual to work, it must have depth. i ♥ huckabees is as profound as Huppert’s aphrodisiac mud puddle. Minus the aphrodisiac properties.
i heart huckabees On-Set Blowup Parody with Paul Rudd and Michael Showalter
Synopsis:
Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman), a mediocre poet and radical environmentalist, hires two "existential" private eyes (Lily Tomlin, Dustin Hoffman) in order to discover the meaning of his three chance encounters with an African man. While being followed around by the metaphysical gumshoes, the ever-more-neurotic Albert must deal with the yuppie Brad Stand (Jude Law), a (purportedly) pro-environment executive at Huckabee, a giant retail chain whose leaders want to raze an area of forests and marshlands to build one more Huckabee megastore.
Having lost the leadership of his own environmental group to Brad, Albert is befriended by fellow neurotic Tommy Corn (Mark Wahlberg), a disillusioned fireman who refuses to consume any sort of petroleum derivative. The duo is then approached by nihilist Catherine Vauban (Isabelle Huppert), who has unexpectedly arrived from Paris to prove that life is all about loneliness and misery. In the meantime, Brad has also hired the existential detectives, and is now seeing both his professional and personal lives fall apart. Ultimately, they must all find out if the universe is a harmonious whole or if it is composed of random (and utterly miserable) unconnected dots.
LA MALA EDUCACIÓN / BAD EDUCATION
MIVTSA YONATAN / OPERATION THUNDERBOLT
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