I Heart Huckabees (2004)

"Will likely divide audiences between those who find its deliberately abstruse discombobulation amusing & to the point, and those who find it just abstruse & discombobulated."
-- Rob Blackwelder, SPLICEDWIRE (from www.rottentomatoes.com)

This reviewer says it all - if you love eccentric, absurdist comedies a la Charlie Kaufman (Human Nature, Eternal Sunshine) and enjoy the quirky, affectionate comedy of Wes Anderson (Bottle Rocket, Tenenbaums), you will LOVE this movie! If, on the other hand, you prefer a good Vin Diesel action flick or a romantic comedy, don't even think about it. Finally, a movie that keeps up with my mind... a perfect concoction of pathos, humour and intellectual discourse all wrapped up in one. The film keeps you so humorously entertained that you don't notice all the existential discourse that's trickling down your throat. Not surprising from the writer/director of the hilariously goofy and smart "Flirting with Disaster". Some viewers found the overtalking distancing, I thought it was razor-sharp and oddly effortless in its artificiality. And it's funny as hell. Self-examination has never been so painless! Not as emotionally affecting or profound as it could have been, but more spiritual and heartfelt than any philosophy movie has a right to be (not just inane, heady banter). Take it from an ex-philosophy student who spent years debating the existence of "somethingness" vs. "nothingness" (as in the film)! Although purists be forewarned - this is philosophy for the masses.

It takes actors this good to make such a rollicking, almost non-coherent plot into a such a riveting piece of entertainment... Jude Law's performance is phenomenally unrecognizable, as is Mark Wahlberg in a stunning thespian tour-de-force (who knew he could act?), and old reliables like Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin prove they are anything but stale. If you call yourself a pseudo- (or better yet, post-) intellectual who doesn't heart Hollywood's recycled premises, this one's for you!

They just don't make enough of these movies for us brain-starved ex-intellectuals... <sigh>

This movie is obviously not for everyone. It's not a comedy that you just put in and sit back and be shut down the old cranium for the two plus hour's. Nope, instead you get the muscle a-cranking. Huckabees requires you to really pay attention and think and take everything in. This film explores several questions mainly dealing with the connection between one person and to the heart, soul, and body of every other thing in existence in an ever-changing world. This film is a big orgy of questioning. And who doesn't like questioning? This film, in its own right, is very original and thought provoking that goes above and beyond any form of typicality of films.

"Huckabees" offers us an impressive cast with Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin, Jason Schwartzman, Jude Law, Mark Wahlberg, Isabelle Huppert (one of my favorite international actress's) and Naomi Watts. Most notable performances by, namely, Dustin Hoffman as it's nice to see him in an exceptional role. He hasn't really been given a great script and chance to portray a great character since probably 1997's "Wag the Dog." It's very nice to see Hoffman play a great character, as Bernard, the quirky husband half of the existential detectives. Also, most notable is the performance of Mark Wahlberg, as Tommy Corn, another client of the detectives that befriends Albert. Tommy is a fire fighter who has his own environmental concerns as he refuses to ride on the fire truck and rather, rides a bike to the fire saying, "We'd all be heroes if we stopped using petroleum." Mark Wahlberg is hilarious in this movie and has his best performance since probably "Boogie Nights" and "Three Kings." However, this movie is much more of an ensemble performance than anything else. The ensemble's performance in this film is terrific and the chemistry between each character is flawless.

The most credit to this movie goes to writer/director David O. Russell. Russell has obviously something going on up there in the cabeza to extract such a story. But the story is amazingly written. The script is out of the ordinary yet genius and comes out as one of the most intelligent films out there and hilarious at that.

I watched this movie with my friends and we ended up having a 4 hour philosophical discussion about existentialism. This film provokes a lot of interesting questions in such a delightful format.