I Heart Huckabees Review

I finally got to see this movie last week, after having wanted to see it since I first saw the trailer on the web. I went in with high expectations for this movie, and although my initial reaction upon walking out of the theater was one of introspection rather than enthusiasm or elation, my expectations were not let down. There will be spoilers in this review, so you might not want to read on if you haven't seen the movie and are planning on it.

The underlying question of Huckabees address is whether anything matters. Life, joy, pain, happiness, suffering, etc. It starts with Albert (Jason Schwartzman), whose position as the head of a local environmental group is being threated by a much more people-friendly Brad (Jude Law), goes to an existential dective agency to discover what his three seemingly chance meetings with a tall black man might mean. The detectives, Bernard and Vivian (Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin), who believe in the fundamental interconnectedness and relevance of all things, proceed to investigate Albert. Things start to fall apart when Brad goes to the detectives to complete his takeover of Albert's turf, driving Albert and his other, Tommy (Mark Walhberg) into the camp of rival existentialist Caterine Vauban (Isabelle Huppert). Caterine also believes in the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, but believes that everything is pointless and the universe is cruel only to be cruel.

Like I said, the question that David O. Russell (the writer and director whose last project was the brilliantly complex Three Kings) weaves through the movie is "does anything matter?" The two answers (yes and no) are personified by the two sides of detectives and Caterine, respectively. Russell also shows us the limitations of every character that prevents them from seeing the fundamental interconnectedness of all things. Ultimately we even see that even Bernard, Vivian and Caterine, who act as guides to the rest of the characters and therefore to us as well, have their own limitations. Russell, while not necessarily endorsing an answer to the movie's question, is trying to get us, like the characters, to look at the big picture: to try and transcend our own limitations and see that underneath it all, we're the same.

Huckabees (which has the brilliantly appropriate slogan "the everything store") does this philosophizing with a fantastic cast who predictably give great performances (including Naomi Watts, who I haven't mentioned yet and plays Brad's girlfriend who is also the Huckabees spokesgirl). Hoffman and Tomlin are especially good with some of the less conventional dialogue. Russell and Jeff Baena turn in a great script, including a fantastic dinner scene where Albert and Tommy (who are both ardent environmentalists) clash with a religious suburban family who couldn't care less. There's also an excellent arguement between Tommy and Bernard about the nature of matter and space. Russell takes the idea to a visual level by parsing off smaller and smaller squares on the screen (if you see it you'll recognize what I'm talking about).

The nice thing about this movie is that it doesn't get bogged down in the ideas. It's a detective movie, and hence you discover things about all the characters along the way. If you're not willing to intellectually invest in it, or refuse to transcend some of your limitations, you may not get much out of it. But if you show up and give the movie a chance on its own terms, you may enjoy it quite a bit. I certainly did.

Note: If you liked this movie, I would suggest Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency, by Douglas Adams, which also deals with the subject of the fundamental interconnectedness of all things, but with a slightly darker tone.