I Heart Huckabees

I Heart Huckabees is a difficult movie to sum up. Just as its title is difficult to type, the film defies the traditional movie traditions and roots itself firmly into mainstream art films. Here a star laden cast including Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin, and Jude Law star in a fun but disjointed movie about nothing, and everything.

For those who do not study philosophy, like myself, and think they know what existentialism means but don’t really here is a brief definition. Something that is existential is said to be of, relating to, or affirming existence. Most likely you have heard of this in relation to the French philosopher Jean-Paul Sartre or the Theater of the Absurd. That is probably about all you have heard, but existentialism tries to deal with the meaning of our existence and the meaning of our choices. Now in general every movie features characters thinking about their singular existence and making a lot of choices. But most movies don’t spend all of their time and characters analyzing every choice we have ever made to seek a meaning for existence. I Heart Huckabees is here to fill that void.

The story begins with Albert Markovski a poetry writing environmental activist who is losing control of his life and his environmental group to the up and coming Huckabees executive Brad Stand, played by the hard working Jude Law. Jason Schwartzman is his common deadpan self-deprecating self in the film. His shtick was refreshing in Rushmore but the act has gotten stale, he really ought to branch into more diverse roles to keep his career in motion. On the other end of the spectrum is Law who seems to be in every movie this season from the action film Sky Captain to Alfie to the romantic drama Closer playing every kind of dashing debonair or depraved character under the sun. In the same way the two characters seem on divergent paths, Albert’s life is coming apart at the seams while everything from the job to the model girlfriend seem given to Brad. The existential exploration begins when Albert approaches the existential detectives about a coincidence of meeting the same tall black man on three separate incidents. Of course the coincidence is just that and does not really have any bearing on the issues in his life but the process of existential discover turns out to be a messy process that unearths a number of other issues on its way.

The existential detectives Bernard and Vivian Jaffe, played delightfully by the wacky and whifty pair of Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin are a married couple who study their client’s lives in minute detail to help expose the interconnectedness of all life and the core issues of their client’s dilemmas. They continually tell their patients to deconstruct their lives with the result that their involvement causes chaos in their clients’ lives as the study cases carry on in near breakdown mode. For instance there is Tommy Corn, an enthusiastic Mark Wahlberg, whose fixation with the world petroleum issue has driven away his wife and child. He joins Albert to expose the existentialists and solve Albert’s coincidence.

In case you were wondering about the title, I Heart Huckabees, Huckabees is a department store of the Wal-Mart you can get everything there variety. The store provides the link between all of the characters in the film as well as offering the promise of an all inclusive existence that most of these characters are looking for. From the environmentalist who opposes the store to the spokes model who embraces the perfect lifestyle or the simulation thereof.

Of course at every point Albert is thwarted in his career and in his search for the meaning of existence by the perfectly smiling and in control Brad. Brad works for the mega-store Huckabees and is dating the store’s spokes model Dawn Campbell, a perky or plodding Naomi Watts depending on the day of the week and her own emotional state. Brad has it all, the house, the girl, the job, and when he turns to the existential detectives and they begin to deconstruct his life they break down the delicate house of cards that Brad has built.

These eccentric characters are joined by another detective, the reclusive Caterine Vauban, Isabelle Huppert, who provides the darkness and chaos to the pleasant and unified Bernard and Vivian and help to further the quest of Albert and Tommy. As the duo point out later, the two methods of the Jaffe’s and Vauban complement each other, one with its optimistic bent and the other with its focus on doom and gloom and nothingness. Without one, the other is incomplete and no real progress can be made. Of course Tommy, Albert, and the audience are left wondering if this conflict between methods is part of the existential experience or another beneficial coincidence.

There are some truly funny scenes in this movie but in general this film lacks direction and a unified message. What does come from it is hope. Albert and Tommy have both survived the deconstruction process and have arrived at a point where they can balance their questions about their existence with their actually being, Brad has been shown up, and they are comfortable with themselves. Even Brad, who seemed truly invested in his faux lifestyle, seems to have gained a greater level of clarity and self-possessedness.

The cast carried the film but it lacked a true theme. This film was directed at the audience attracted to Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and contained some similar camera actions to try to visualize thought processes. However, I think that Eternal Sunshine was significantly better written; much more focused in its direction, and knew its characters more intimately. I Heart Huckabees searches for meaning, but it paints its characters a little too broadly to allow for real knowledge. The result is a less thought provoking and more disposable film.