January 25, 2005 -- “I ♥ Huckabees” is the funniest film I have seen this year. Granted, it is not for all tastes. I mean, who ever heard of a screwball existential detective comedy? This is rousing comic romp for thinking people. The ultra complex philosophical story line has to do with two opposing viewpoints of existentialism, one positive, the other negative. It also has to do with several people caught in middle between these extremes. The film is directed and co-written by offbeat filmmaker David O. Russell (“Three Kings”).

The positive existentialists, Bernard and Vivian (Dustin Hoffman of “Confidence” and Lily Tomlin of “Orange County”), run an existentialist detective agency. They are hired by Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman of “Slackers”) to discover the existential significance of some strange coincidences he has noticed lately. The negative existentialist, Caterine Vauban (Isabelle Huppert of “8 Women”) is an author, and a former colleague of Bernard and Vivian, who is sneaking around trying to undo what Bernard and Vivian are doing.

The hilariously invasive investigations by Bernard and Vivian eventually lead Markovski to another client of the detectives, Tommy Corn (Mark Wahlberg of “The Italian Job”), who in turn hooks him up with Vauban, who works her negative voodoo on the two. This sets up a showdown between Bernard, Vivian and Vauban, along with Markovski's environmental foe, Brad Stand (Jude Law of “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow”) who is a corporate executive with a Wal-Mart like chain of stores called Huckabees.

Markovski is in the midst of a power struggle within his environmental organization with Stand and Stand's girlfriend, Dawn Campbell (Naomi Watts of “Mulholland Drive”) who is model and spokesman for Huckabees. The company wants to pave over a swamp that Markovski is trying to protect. Stand plans to subvert Markovski's environmental organization in order to facilitate the company's plans.

All of these people eventually get caught up in the conflict between the two radical existentialist philosophies with hilarious results. The story, co-written by director David O. Russell (“Three Kings”) is wildly imaginative, so much so that the narrative occasionally derails. The universe that Russell creates in this film quite a bit different than reality, but it is very entertaining. A lot of the success of this film is due to fine performances by the very talented cast. I was especially impressed with Mark Wahlberg, better known for action roles than comedy, which is more difficult to master. Wahlberg turns in a very good comic performance here as a character who is more or less completely wacky. I haven't laughed this much at any other film I've seen this year. This film rates a B.

Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in video and/or DVD format, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff. I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.

Copyright © 2005 Robert Roten. All rights reserved.
Reproduced with the permission of the copyright holder.

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