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I Heart Huckabees - 10/22/04 - R - 106m
Jason Schwartzman - Albert Markovski
Dustin Hoffman - Bernard
Lily Tomlin - Vivian
Director: David O. Russell
Written by: David O. Russell & Jeff Baena
Studio: Fox Searchlight Pictures
Official
Website
JEF
Well, first a little history, I’ve done a pretty good amount of “thinking about life’s big questions”… topics like; what does it all mean, is there such a thing as coincidence, religion in general, etc. As Lyn and I were driving home, I mentioned that since I’ve gotten older, I’ve moved on to more important questions… like… “What’s for lunch tomorrow?”
Storyline: Billed as a comedy about what it’s all about. This is a hard film to describe. Albert (Jason Schwartzman) is having a problem figuring out a strange repeating coincidence. He’s bumped into a tall African man (Ger Duany) approx. three times in random places, and has to wonder why does he keep bumping into this man. In what seems another coincidence, he discovers a business card for an “existential detective agency”. He goes to them in order figure out these coincidences which leads to some larger questions like “the meaning of it all”.
I enjoyed the acting all around for this one. Jason Schwartzman was the main character and he really did well. It very much reminded me of his past role as “Rushmore” (which I also liked). It was almost like this film could have been “Rushmore 2”. I was also impressed with Mark Wahlberg’s performance, playing a confused and angry quirky character. Of course Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin were great too. They played the roles of the detectives. And Jude Law, who is in a movie at least once a month lately, did a good job as well. Amazing how he’s able to break his English accent.
The storyline is so strange it’s hard to talk about. I found many parts funny. I don’t think this film was meant to be taken seriously, and even may be poking fun at those “existential” type people. (It was funny to see the audience as they all looked like they could have been extras in the film.) The film hands out a big portion of philosophy, and maybe that can be a bit overwhelming at times. A few times I didn’t even try to keep up with the logic. I’ve heard it before in my philosophy 101 classes 
.
I didn’t come away from the movie with my mind being blown, or feeling the need to talk about “what is the meaning of it all”. I just saw it as a quirky little film that was fun and enjoyable for about 2 hours.
As one additional thought, I did enjoy a few of the visual effects that were used in the movie.
Because of the topic area, and the “quirkiness” of this film I can’t recommend it to everyone, but if you liked films like Waking Life, Rushmore, or enjoyed The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy’s answer to life, the universe and everything, then you might enjoy this film.
Jef
