Post by rjxsapri® on Mar 2, 2005 22:51:22 GMT -5
If you're pissed off by that precious little heart in the title meant to be pronounced I Heart Huckabees, then this head-spinning fourth film from the prodding, risk-insensitive David O. Russell (Spanking the Monkey, Flirting With Disaster, Three Kings) may drive you up the wall. Trying to balance mirth and metaphysics, Russell walks a tightrope and tips precariously into incoherence. But how do you not heart a movie that breaks ranks with tight-assed formula and gets dissed by The New Yorker as an "authentic disaster"?
What's it all about? Don't ask.
It sounds silly to say that Jason Schwartzman, in his richest role since Rushmore, plays Albert, an environmentalist poet tormented with questions about the meaning of existence, especially his own. It sounds sillier to add that Albert hires the Jaffes, Bernard (Dustin Hoffman) and Vivian (Lily Tomlin), a married couple billed as existential detectives. Woody Allen used to joke about cheating on his philosophy exam by peeking into the soul of the boy next to him. The Jaffes peek into Albert's soul to get to the bottom of his angst. Russell adopts the same method. With a philosopher's eye and an ear for absurdist humor, he looks into the void of our pop-corporate culture to see if there is any soul left. The film flies by on the wings of Jon Brion's fleet score, but the gravity of the situation is never in doubt.
Which brings us to Huckabees, the "everything store" that tries to destroy Albert's Open Spaces program by co-opting it for the store ad campaign. Albert's pretty-boy nemesis is Huckabees exec Brad (Jude Law), who lives with Dawn (Naomi Watts), the Huckabees spokesmodel. Sexy, fab and deeply fake, Brad and Dawn represent everything for which most of us sell our souls to the company store. Then Brad hires the Jaffes to look into his void, and Dawn -- heeding their Zen message of interconnectedness -- starts shunning makeup and wearing an Amish bonnet.
Under Russell's shrewdly screwball direction, the actors go places they've never been before. Law and Watts take flight into the wild blue of farce. And the teamwork of Hoffman, sporting a Beatle cut, and Tomlin, wearing power suits that can't hide her antic spirit, is a pleasure. Isabelle Huppert is a cerebral hottie as Caterine, the dark counterpart to the Jaffes -- her philosophy is engraved on a business card: cruelty. manipulation. meaninglessness.
Best of all is Mark Wahlberg as Tommy, an angry post-9/11 firefighter so against Big Oil that he rides to fire scenes on his bike. Tommy switches from the Jaffes to Caterine to learn harsher truths. Back from the career death of Planet of the Apes, Rock Star and The Trouble With Charlie, Wahlberg gives an indelibly funny and touching performance that constitutes the film's heart.
Russell, who co-wrote the script with Jeff Baena, tosses so many big ideas in the air that it's not surprising a few crash and burn. Live with it. Russell is a true original. It's not in his DNA to play it safe. He's a rebel Pied Piper, and Huckabees is one more reason to follow him anywhere.
Rating:
(3.5/5)
What's it all about? Don't ask.
It sounds silly to say that Jason Schwartzman, in his richest role since Rushmore, plays Albert, an environmentalist poet tormented with questions about the meaning of existence, especially his own. It sounds sillier to add that Albert hires the Jaffes, Bernard (Dustin Hoffman) and Vivian (Lily Tomlin), a married couple billed as existential detectives. Woody Allen used to joke about cheating on his philosophy exam by peeking into the soul of the boy next to him. The Jaffes peek into Albert's soul to get to the bottom of his angst. Russell adopts the same method. With a philosopher's eye and an ear for absurdist humor, he looks into the void of our pop-corporate culture to see if there is any soul left. The film flies by on the wings of Jon Brion's fleet score, but the gravity of the situation is never in doubt.
Which brings us to Huckabees, the "everything store" that tries to destroy Albert's Open Spaces program by co-opting it for the store ad campaign. Albert's pretty-boy nemesis is Huckabees exec Brad (Jude Law), who lives with Dawn (Naomi Watts), the Huckabees spokesmodel. Sexy, fab and deeply fake, Brad and Dawn represent everything for which most of us sell our souls to the company store. Then Brad hires the Jaffes to look into his void, and Dawn -- heeding their Zen message of interconnectedness -- starts shunning makeup and wearing an Amish bonnet.
Under Russell's shrewdly screwball direction, the actors go places they've never been before. Law and Watts take flight into the wild blue of farce. And the teamwork of Hoffman, sporting a Beatle cut, and Tomlin, wearing power suits that can't hide her antic spirit, is a pleasure. Isabelle Huppert is a cerebral hottie as Caterine, the dark counterpart to the Jaffes -- her philosophy is engraved on a business card: cruelty. manipulation. meaninglessness.
Best of all is Mark Wahlberg as Tommy, an angry post-9/11 firefighter so against Big Oil that he rides to fire scenes on his bike. Tommy switches from the Jaffes to Caterine to learn harsher truths. Back from the career death of Planet of the Apes, Rock Star and The Trouble With Charlie, Wahlberg gives an indelibly funny and touching performance that constitutes the film's heart.
Russell, who co-wrote the script with Jeff Baena, tosses so many big ideas in the air that it's not surprising a few crash and burn. Live with it. Russell is a true original. It's not in his DNA to play it safe. He's a rebel Pied Piper, and Huckabees is one more reason to follow him anywhere.
Rating:
(3.5/5)