DVD Movie Rating for: I Heart Huckabees

Rating

Movie Plot of: I Heart Huckabees

I Heart Huckabees is one of those great films that allows the viewer to enjoy and have fun with what he or she is seeing, and potentially allows one to become a more enlightened person after seeing it.

I Heart Huckabees is one of the most ‘different’ comedies I have ever experienced. This movie is completely zany - just look at the plot. The story revolves around one Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman), an environmentalist who is trying to save the world’s remaining green spaces. He plants trees in parking lots and mass produces his poems to bring people into his fold to protest against urban sprawl. Albert is an ineffectual mess who is looking for more from life than what the world has presented to him so far. He visits two ‘existential detectives’, Bernard and Vivian (Lily Tomlin & Dustin Hoffman) to help figure out why a series of coincidences keep happening to him. As these detectives begin to investigate him, the outer portions of Albert’s life are exposed. Albert is being pushed out of his Open Spaces Coalition by Brad Stand (Jude Law), and while looking great on the outside, Brad has his own set of problems, and hires Bernard and Vivian himself. Brad is on the rise at retail chain Huckabees, and is living with Dawn Campbell (Naomi Watts) who is the Huckabees ‘it’ girl. We also get to know Tommy Corn (Mark Wahlberg) who is also a client of the existential detectives, and is a good match for Albert as Tommy is completely opposed to petroleum production. The crazed plot also includes another existential detective Catherine (Isabelle Huppert) who has seemingly slipped to the dark side of this kind of detecting, and plots to save Albert and Tommy herself. Confused yet? Don’t be. Just go and have fun.

Under the great direction of David O. Russell, the film is able to contain its frenetic pace (much like Russell’s terrific Flirting With Disaster), keeping the audience in tune with what’s going on, and serving up laughs along the way. The performances here are perfectly over-the-top, from Dustin Hoffman’s controlled-crazy performance (he looks like what one of The Beatles would have looked like if they had kept the outfits from the mid-'60s). Lily Tomlin is always perfect in this sort of thing, strong and always straight-ahead – definitely no winks toward the audience in this one. Lily Tomlin played the flip-side of the character in Russell’s perfect Flirting With Disaster, and is certainly at the top of her game this time out as well. Jason Schwartzman is perfect for his part, as it’s almost like he rode his bike from Rushmore, aged ten years and showed up on the set. He brings a lost-puppy sort of thing to Huckabees, and they couldn’t have chosen better. To reflect Dustin Hoffman’s Beatle-like image in the movie, Jason Schwartzman looks like a Beatle circa 1970. Maybe the best performance here, though, is surprisingly from Mark Wahlberg. His Tommy Corn is not essential to the plot, but not unnecessary either. I have always thought of Marky Mark as an idiot, but he pulls off this role quite well, and he is a service to the film. Other great appearances in this film include Tippi Hedren, Jean Smart and Talia Shire, along with the rest of the great supporting cast.

Box office wise, Huckabees is already off to a great start in limited release, recording one of the biggest venue averages ever for a non-animated, non-Imax film. Can Huckabees play to a wide audience? Probably not, but it will fill a niche for those discerning moviegoers looking for more than the usual brainless type of Hollywood film. The cast has a pedigree like no other, and the writing is superlative, which sadly eliminates most of the under-21 set from seeing this film. I Heart Huckabees is a great film, one not to be missed, especially if you don’t mind thinking a little. Heck, even if you don’t like thinking, you might still enjoy Huckabees.

DVD Production Details of: I Heart Huckabees

Directed by David O. Russell

Cast of the movie: I Heart Huckabees

• Jason Schwartzman .... Albert Markovski
• Isabelle Huppert .... Caterine Vauban
• Dustin Hoffman .... Bernard
• Lily Tomlin .... Vivian
• Jude Law .... Brad Stand
• Mark Wahlberg .... Tommy Corn
• Naomi Watts .... Dawn Campbell
• Angela Grillo .... Angela Franco
• Ger Duany .... Mr. Nimieri
• Darlene Hunt .... Darlene
• Kevin Dunn .... Marty
• Benny Hernandez .... Davy
• Richard Appel .... Josh
• Benjamin Nurick .... Harrison
• Jake Muxworthy .... Tim
• Pablo Davanzo .... Bobby
• Matthew Muzio .... Construction Worker
• Shawn Patrick .... Fireman
• Patrick M. Walsh .... Fireman (as Patrick Walsh)
• Tippi Hedren .... Mary Jane Hutchinson
• Ashley Fondrevay .... Frosh Girl (as Ashley A. Fondrevay)
• Lisa Guzman .... Frosh Girl
• Scott Wannberg .... Bik Schottinger
• Altagracia Guzman .... Mrs. Echevarria
• Saïd Taghmaoui .... Translator
• Jean Smart .... Mrs. Hooten
• Sydney Zarp .... Cricket
• Jonah Hill .... Bret
• Denis Hayes .... Orrin Spence
• Matthew Antonio Grillo Russell .... Boy at Mancala Hour (as Matthew Grillo-Russell)
• Janet Grillo .... Boy's Mother
• Adam Clinton .... Security Guard
• Antonio Evans .... Security Guard
• Robert K. Lambert .... Daryl (as Robert Lambert)
• Isla Fisher .... Heather
• Kimberly Cutter .... Corporate Board
• John Rothman .... Corporate Board
• Talia Shire .... Mrs. Silver
• Bob Gunton .... Mr. Silver
• Kamala Lopez-Dawson .... Molly Corn
• Saige Ryan Campbell .... Caitlin Corn
• Kaied Hussan .... Turkish Man
• Chuck Saftler .... Dexicorp Attorney
• James J. McCoy .... Medic
• Shania Twain .... Herself
• George Meyer .... Formal Couple
• Maria Semple .... Formal Couple
• Jerry Schumacher .... Corporate Man
• Julie Ann Johnson .... Lady in Gown
• Jeannie Epper-Kimack .... Lady in Gown
• Keith Barrett .... Maitre'd
• Jake Hoffman .... Valet

Photo Gallery of the movie: I Heart Huckabees

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Photo Gallery I Heart Huckabees with Jason Schwartzman ,Dustin Hoffman, Isabelle Huppert, Jude Law, Naomi Watts

Reviews of the movie: I Heart Huckabees

I Heart Huckabees

Albert (Jason Schwartzman, 'Rushmore') is thrown into a coincidence crisis when he comes upon a 7 foot Sudanese man three times in one day. Troubled, Albert seeks out Bernard (Dustin Hoffman) and Vivian (Lily Tomlin), a pair of existential detectives who proceed to trail Albert in his daily life to figure out his quandary. What the pair discovers instead is Albert's frustration with Brad (Jude Law), a callous exec for the department store chain Huckabees, who wants to help Albert in his fight to save the local environment (with the help of Shania Twain and Pete Sampras), but also wants to further his career. Falling into an abyss of self-loathing, Albert and the detectives try to solve his philosophical problems while fending off a scheming French radical (Isabelle Huppert), embracing another distressed client (Mark Wahlberg), and lusting after Brad's girlfriend and Huckabees spokeswoman Dawn (Naomi Watts), who wants to learn a thing or two about her own infinite nature.

Can a film that questions the great unknown of nothingness, or any other of the myriad of existential crises be funny? Writer/director David O. Russell seems to think so, which explains the existence of his new film, 'I Heart Huckabees,' which takes a bizarre and occasionally hilarious look at characters who are in desperate need of self-exploration and personal inventory.

I Heart Huckabees is a peculiar film, but that's exactly what Russell (and co-writer Jeff Baena) is going for, stocking the film with lightning quick philosophical and existential ramblings intermixed with broad comedy to keep the film light on its toes. This quickly paced picture isn't for everyone, and possibly isn't for anyone at all. It seems to exist only in Russell's head, with the filmmaker trusting that this inspired lunacy will somehow rub off on the more philosophically inclined, inducing the masses to unite and solve their own existential dilemmas.

Much like 'Fahrenheit 9/11' and John Waters's 'A Dirty Shame,' I Heart Huckabees is the sole vision of the director, and his fervent enthusiasm for the material is infectious even at moments when the film makes absolutely no sense. The fact that I Heart Huckabees can remain entertaining through so many wild and bewildering tangents of the mind is a credit to Russell and the film.

Besides, where else can you see Jude Law vomit lightly into his hand and slurp it back up? Not in 'Sky Captain,' lemme tell ya.

A lot is asked of the cast in I Heart Huckabees,' and the particularly high-wattage lineup of actors is a testament to the faith they shared in Russell and his vision (captured impeccably by cinematographer Peter Deming). Jason Schwartzman makes for an interestingly distressed lead character, whose bizarre crisis of coincidence kicks off the odyssey. With Jason Schwartzman as the film's rock, the rest of the actors are allowed to play very exaggeratedly, with the most fun provided by Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin as the existential detectives. The two actors look like they're on vacation. Russell gives the whole cast a chance to run wild with the script, with only Mark Wahlberg (who acts as Russell's mouthpiece with his objections to Earth's reliance on petroleum) tripping up a little bit with the thorny dialog. The rest of the cast can only bask in the heat of the complicated ideas, striving to not appear overwhelmed by Russell's film. They're all enormous fun.

As one might expect, I Heart Huckabees runs out of steam long before it can find a conclusion, which I'm convinced it never does. Once Shania Twain shows up to kick Brad's ass in a hotel elevator, Russell has reached the bottom of his well of ideas, and the film shuffles off softly. 'I Heart Huckabees' is tough to recommend because the toxicity of the material is so potent. But the minutiae that Russell displays here is fascinating, and should provide a conversation piece for the baby-eating pseudo-intellectuals found in wine bars, as well as endless hours of entertainment for lonely college kids who can study the film with the same sweaty intensity that they employ when they pore over the latest changes to the 'Star Wars' trilogy on DVD