I ♥ Huckabees (2004)
US 106m, Colour
Director: David O. Russell; Cast: Jason Schwartzman, Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin, Jude Law, Naomi Watts, Mark Wahlberg, Isabelle Huppert
Reminiscent of Wes Anderson films, I ♥ Huckabees is a bizarre comedy with a witty script featuring entertainingly offbeat performances by a terrific ensemble cast. In hiring “existential detectives”, Albert Markovski hopes to discover the meaning of his life after faced with a series of unexplained coincidences while fighting to maintain his position as the head of an organization dedicated to maintaining green spaces in urban environments. Despite the largely nonsensical plot, the pseudo-philosophical dialogue and the highly improbable New Age treatments are a wonderful distraction in this delightfully stylized film filled with engaging and enigmatic characters which are increasingly entertaining to deconstruct with repeated viewings (Klaus Ming April 2011).
6 comments on “I ♥ Huckabees (2004)”
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I love this movie (far more than Wes Anderson’s, which have always seemed rather precious to me). I think this one seems less precious because it’s actually about something.
It’s also wonderfully quotable. Albert’s response about transcending space and time, Bernard Jaffee’s explanation of the blanket thing, “it’s quantity, not quality,” and “she knew my name!”
This movie is a lot of fun, and very re-watchable. The visual effects – which i didn’t mention in the review are also very nicely done and add to the quirky nature of the film. This one really should be part of the 1001 list.
Good pont on the visual effects. The music was really good, too.
Possibly reliable trivia: I read somewhere that Dustin Hoffman’s character was at least somewhat based on Robert Thurman (Uma’s dad) under whom Russell studied at Amherst.
It’s one of the two movies I can think of that I might describe as profound (the other being Fireworks, by Takeshi Kitano).
Interesting. I hadn’t heard that. There’s a lot going on in this film for sure.
I remember a lot of people hating on this film when it first came out, but I found it positively charming. The comparison to Wes Anderson is a good one, and I really liked the philosophical tone of the film. This is one I’ll have to revisit soon.
I was one of those people who didn’t care much for it when it came out. I’ve since come to appreciate it a whole lot more.