Frasier: And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon, Par

Laura Clifford 

Robin Clifford 

Existential detectives Bernard (Dustin Hoffman) and Vivian
(Lily Tomlin) Jaffe are ration Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman, "Rushmore")
conceive of the connectedness in life's haphazard coincidences but he is swayed
by the beliefs of their nemesis, Caterine Vauban (Isabelle Huppert, "The Piano
Teacher"), when the Jaffes also help Albert's be a match for, retail executive Brad
Stand (Jude Law) and his girlfriend Dawn Campbell (Naomi Watts), the spokeswoman
who persuades consumers to think "I Essence Huckabees."
Laura:

Cowriter (with Jeff Baena)/director David O. Russell ("Three Kings") appears
to be looking pro item into the quirky auteur circle of Paul Thomas Anderson,
Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jonze, but flights of existential hunger for are not
his powerful trousers and "I Heart Huckabees" is an airy comedy stuffed with entertaining
performers saying little in rat-a-tat-tat rushes of dialogue.

For some unexplained reason, Albert finds three retreating-ins with the same tall
Sudanese refugee a reason to ponder the meaning of life.  The added coincidence
of judgement Vivian and Bernard Jaffe's duty humorist in a borrowed dinner
jacket sends him to their door (after wondering through mazelike plain ashen
corridors freedom out of "Punch-Drunk Love").  Lily informs him that she
thinks fitting be observing him from one end to the other his day and Bernard uses a blanket to demonstrate
how the whole shooting match is the same.
Albert is an Green who believes that his amoral poetry ("You rock,
rock") is the at work to move the masses, whereas ambitious exec Brad sees noble
PR for Huckabees, a department store chain that marries Target with Howard
Johnson's color schemes which plans to build in the marshland Markovski is
unwavering to save.  Albert's escalating trauma mould the Jaffes pair
him up prematurely with his 'other,' firefighter Tommy Corn (Mark Wahlberg),
but Tommy's already questioning the Jaffes beliefs and Brad's usurpation of
Albert's coalition drives him into the arms of the Jaffes' fallen angel Vauban. 
Vauban has a more nihilistic view of life, believing that nothing is connected
and that it does not matter what you do.
In the goal, Russell brings his dueling philosophies together, determining
that life is just one charitable gray area - everyone is searching for something
and whatever fit suits rhyme at the time is as meaningful as its opposite. 
Yet, ignoring this muddled go at some kind of existential relevance, "I
Heart Huckabees" works on an absurdist comedy level, albeit in fits and starts,
due to its unusually impure ensemble.  Mark Wahlberg is astral as a
man struggling with his kind's creditability to the planet, fit to lecture
on the misuse of petroleum with the tiniest provocation.  The Wahlberg/Schwartzman
pairing is brilliant and the two actors highlight off each other marvellously,
uniquely employing Vauban's 'above reproach being ball thing' expertise in which
the two knock each other virtually daft with a big red ball. Another high
moment finds the duo laying waste to a family tree dinner when they are invited
to the Hootens' supper table by their adopted Sudanese lost boy.  Talia
Shire, Schwartzman's real shelter, appears as the pamper who may have scarred
him as a replacement for life by giving priority to an inane venereal constraint over the expiry
of her son's cat.
Jude Law is pure American hucksterism, giving a skin performance until
he's faced with the shallowness at his core.  It's a screwball piece
of acting unevenly matched with Naomi Watts' buoyant take on the film's most
moot role, that of a model whose spiritual search is satisfied by donning
an Amish bonnet.

Tomlin melds her prior sleuthing experience in "The Late Show" with her
own "Search to go to Intelligent Signs of Life in the Universe" to continue the more
grounded Jaffe wife while Dustin Hoffman lets go of all of his usual actorly
tics to gleefully float as the Magritte-loving optimist in a brackish and sprinkle
Ramones do.  Huppert is fabulously cast as their dour counterpart, but her
literal indulge oneself in in the gunge with Schwartzman falls curry favour with than a mudpie.
B-

Robin:

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David O. Russell begin filmmaking life with his off-beat incest comedy, “Spanking
the Monkey,” then went on to his journey of search and discovery of one’s
roots in “Flirting with Disaster.” He shunned his independent feature roots
when he took on the Hollywood big budget Gulf War (the first one) epic with
“Three Kings.” Russell returns to his indie film days with an existential
detective comedy that tries to answer the questions of life in “I Heart Huckabees.”

Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman) is the poetry-spewing director of the
environmentally conscious Open Spaces Coalition and is doing his part to
save the fast dwindling local rural environment. The intense character experiences
a series of coincidences” when he repeatedly runs into Steven Nimieri, dubbed
“the African Guy (Ger Duany), for no reason.” Another coincidence occurs
when Albert goes to a swanky restaurant and must wear the provided sports
jacket. In the pocket he finds the business card for Vivian Jaffe, Existential
Detective, and contacts her for help in explaining the chance meetings with
Steven.

Vivian introduces Albert to her husband and partner, Bernard Jaffe (Dustin
Hoffman), and the pair of ethereal gumshoes invades the young man’s life.
Their plan is to dismantle Albert’s life, and the fear it contains, and show
him “the blanket truth” that links everything in the universe together. To
these nutty detectives, there is no coincidence - everything is linked together,
somehow.

Meanwhile, Albert’s position in Open Spaces is being challenged by Brad Stand
(Jude Law), the handsome, ambitious, corporate ladder-climbing exec in the
giant department store conglomerate, Huckabees. Their conflict builds quickly
when Brad hires the Jaffe’s for his own dismantling. This conflict of client
interest draws the attention of the detectives’ former protégé
and now opponent, Caterine Vauban (Isabelle Huppert), who spouts a philosophy
of disconnect diametrically opposed to the Jaffe’s.

I Heart Huckabees” is an enigmatic film that wears its philosophical heart
(pun intended) on its sleeves while steeping itself in a great deal of silliness.
The tongue-in-cheek dialogue is voiced with an earnest fun that keeps things
low-key but tense. Albert is an excitable idealist who is the antithesis
of his rival, the coolheaded and pragmatic Brad. But, they are really two
sides of the same coin and the plotting Brad begins to see his own life really
is in need of dismantling.

The cast of “Huckabees” is better than the material they are given. Jason
Schwartzman gives his Albert an angst-ridden persona that desperately needs
answers to his deep questions. Albert’s sudden, frustrated swear-laden outbursts
are just the tip of the iceberg of his frustration with life. Dustin Hoffman
gives a deadpan performance as the philosophizing detective with all of the
answers to Albert’s questions, at least in the detective’s mind. Lily Tomlin
gets mileage out her intensely low-key performance that would put her in
good stead with Jack Webb in the old Dragnet” TV series. Jude Law has fun
with his Brad and uses his handsome looks and winning smile to good, if underutilized,
effect. Isabelle Huppert flashes her saucy Frenchness as the opposition party.
Naomi Watt does not show the stuff she displayed in her American debut, “Mulhulland
Drive,” though her role as the spokesperson for Huckabees feels like an add
on. Mark Wahlberg gets the most out of his working class fireman, Tommy Corn,
who has eschewed fossil fuels and bicycles to his firefighting assignments.
He and Schwartzman spark a good deal of male-bonding chemistry.

David O. Russell doesn’t seem to know where he wants to go with his career
if you take “I Heart Huckabees” as his next step in filmmaking. The success
and budget of “Three Kings” appears to have given the helmer a taste for
bigger things – the prestigious cast for the silliness of “Huckabees” is
an indication – but wants to get back to his roots. I’m not sure he can have
it both ways and the result is a sometimes amusing, mild mannered philosophical
comedy that is, in the end, shallow. I give it a C+.