{"id":74938,"date":"2004-10-05T15:41:58","date_gmt":"2004-10-05T22:41:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lookingcloser.org\/?p=74938"},"modified":"2012-08-23T18:01:40","modified_gmt":"2012-08-24T00:01:40","slug":"i-%e2%99%a5-huckabees-2004","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lookingcloser\/2004\/10\/i-%e2%99%a5-huckabees-2004\/","title":{"rendered":"I \u2665 Huckabees (2004)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

This review was originally published at ChristianityTodayMovies.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u2013<\/p>\n

I \u2665 Huckabees<\/em> is \u201call about what it\u2019s all about.\u201d At least, that\u2019s what the studio\u2019s summary of David O. Russell\u2019s fourth film boasts. If that means that the movie asks, \u201cWhat\u2019s it all about?\u201d\u2026 they\u2019re correct. We haven\u2019t seen a movie so intent on uncovering the meaning of life since Richard Linklater\u2019s Waking Life<\/em>. But anybody who claims Huckabees<\/em> delivers a satisfactory definition of life\u2019s meaning is sorely mistaken.<\/p>\n

Although widely varied in style, Russell\u2019s films explore what unites humankind and what draws people out of their narrow-minded boxes. In Flirting with Disaster<\/em>, Ben Stiller plays a desperate man searching for the family that gave him up for adoption. Over and over, he \u201cfinds\u201d his family and begins bonding, only to find out there\u2019s been a mistake, and he has to tear himself away. It\u2019s all played for laughs, but on a deeper level the film is about how interconnected we are, even with total strangers. Although Russell\u2019s war film Three Kings<\/em> was much more serious, it too was about human unity; U.S. soldiers in the Gulf War came to realize that the struggle was not as clear cut as they\u2019d assumed, and through a terrifying hostage crisis they came to sympathize more deeply with the people whose territory they occupied.<\/p>\n

The hero of I \u2665 Huckabees<\/em> is not trying to find a family; he\u2019s trying to find a satisfying worldview. And while his relational barrier is not an international divide, he does learn how much he has in common with his enemy, a corporate executive with a mean streak.<\/p>\n

Albert Markovski (Rushmore<\/em>\u2018s Jason Schwartzman) is a defender of \u201copen spaces,\u201d an environmentalist, and a poet. But for a guy who\u2019s passionate about poetry and a clean environment, he sure has a filthy mouth! He vents his outrage in an R-rated stream of profanity, protesting disorder in the world and in his own life, much the way Nicolas Cage did in the opening moments of Adaptation<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Albert has good reason to be upset. He signed a contract with a superstore chain called Huckabees in order to gain the resources necessary to save a local marsh. But while Huckabees promotes Albert\u2019s Open Spaces Coalition with the help of pop star Shania Twain, they\u2019re cleverly subverting Albert\u2019s leadership of the campaign, replacing poetry with empty razzle-dazzle. Raging against the machine, Albert tries to prevent his supporters from being seduced by Huckabees\u2019 charming, materialistic, malevolent figurehead, Brad Stand (Jude Law).<\/p>\n

But Albert\u2019s angst runs deeper than mere disillusionment with corporations. Mysterious coincidences have led him to question the purpose of his life. So he seeks helps from \u201cexistential detectives\u201d to help him learn whether or not his efforts really matter. Vivian and Bernard Jaffe (Lily Tomlin wearing a tight suit, Dustin Hoffman sporting a haircut that makes him look like the fifth Beatle) promise Albert that their investigation will be a \u201cpainful process\u201d that could \u201cdismantle\u201d his whole experience.<\/p>\n

The detectives begin to spy on Albert\u2019s every move. The answers they uncover are, in essence, more powerful questions that lead Albert farther into psychobabble than he really wants to go. \u201cHave you ever transcended space and time?\u201d Vivian asks him. Bernard tries to explain the interconnectedness of everything by turning a blanket into a metaphor, and then he zips Albert into a body bag for some quiet time. Soon, Albert\u2019s so confused about the meaning of life\u2014or whether there actually is such a thing\u2014that he can hardly ride his environmentally correct bicycle. Worse, the Jaffes argue that Albert and his nemesis, Brad, have quite a bit in common.<\/p>\n

As part of the Jaffes\u2019 experiment, Albert is assigned to spend time with his \u201cother,\u201d an inquisitive searcher who faces a similar struggle. Tommy Corn (Mark Wahlberg) is a firefighter who, after losing some colleagues in \u201cthat September thing,\u201d became so obsessed with tough philosophical questions that his wife took the kids and abandoned him. United by their hatred for corporate greed, their rage over petroleum dependence, and their frustration with the Jaffes\u2019 dissatisfying counsel, Albert and Tommy decide to team up with the Jaffes\u2019 philosophical opposite, a nihilistic French philosopher named Caterine Vauban (Isabelle Huppert).<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Brad hires the Jaffes for his own wicked purposes. But instead of getting the upper hand in the battle with Albert, he and his girlfriend Dawn (Naomi Watts)\u2014Huckabees\u2019 Barbie-like spokesmodel\u2014plunge into identity crises of their own. Brad proves unable to endure the psychological surgery that exposes the ugliness beneath his picture-perfect public image. And Dawn learns that, just as she can perform sexy contortions on Huckabees commercials, she\u2019s quite bendy when it comes to her worldview as well.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to imagine that a storyteller could maintain such a surreal, overcrowded, and philosophical narrative without losing the audience. But Russell directs with the ambition of Robert Altman (Short Cuts<\/em>) and the nervous energy of Paul Thomas Anderson (Punch-Drunk Love<\/em>), and his script sounds like it was co-written by Howard Hawks (His Girl Friday<\/em>) and Charlie Kaufman (Being John Malkovich<\/em>) and adapted from a book by Jean-Paul Sartre. It\u2019s a highly entertaining accomplishment, even if it never arrives at a satisfactory resolution.<\/p>\n

While it\u2019s not Russell\u2019s best film\u2014that would be Three Kings<\/em>\u2014it\u2019s certainly a memorably zany foray into uncharted cinematic territory. It\u2019s more mind-bending than Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind<\/em> and more aggressively soul-searching than Dogville<\/em>. It benefits from another inventive soundtrack by Jon Brion and can boast of the biggest all-star cast this year.<\/p>\n

The actors clearly relish the opportunity to play such manic loonies. Jude Law gives his most interesting performance since Gattaca<\/em>, creating a convincingly wicked and worldly egomaniac who delights in climbing the corporate ladder; when he falls, he\u2019s persuasively distraught. Naomi Watts is pitch-perfect as a ditzy blonde who discovers there\u2019s more to life than glamour. Isabelle Huppert, audacious as ever, plays a comical variation on the sick and twisted characters she\u2019s played in subversive films like La Ceremonie<\/em> and The Piano Teacher<\/em>\u2014here, she even gets a chance to fearlessly wallow in the mud like a pig. Hoffman and Tomlin are a surprisingly wacky match, and Jason Schwartzman mirrors our own bewilderment at all that transpires.<\/p>\n

The biggest surprise is Mark Wahlberg\u2019s performance; he makes Tommy stand out as the most human and affecting of the bunch. Thus it\u2019s even more distressing when the film portrays Tommy as discovering fulfillment and happiness in a way that quietly excuses him of all responsibility for his earlier failure as a father and a husband.<\/p>\n

And that\u2019s what makes Russell\u2019s film inferior to Paul Thomas Anderson\u2019s morality plays (Boogie Nights, Magnolia<\/em>). Anderson gives us characters who suffer the consequences of reckless self-gratification, learn humility, and reach out for help, whereas Russell\u2019s Huckabees <\/em>crowd comes close to justifying destructive behavior in the name of independent intellectual adventures. Anderson\u2019s films are about fools finding wisdom and grace, where Huckabees<\/em> is just about finding a tenuous happiness.<\/p>\n

While Albert, Tommy, Brad, and the gang are all portrayed as comical fools who have a lot to learn, the film\u2019s gravest error is that it holds up Christians as the biggest idiots of all. Instead of considering Christian faith, Russell instead presents us with a na\u00efve and narrow-minded religious family who claim that Christianity condemns curiosity, and who look at Albert\u2019s passion for the environment as ridiculous. Christian viewers should not be too offended by such a cruel caricature, as there are indeed many believers who use Christianity as an excuse to avoid intellectual endeavor, whereas Christ tells us that \u201cHe who seeks finds.\u201d But Huckabees<\/em> resurrects a wearying question: Why are so many films that wave the flag of \u201ctolerance\u201d so unforgivingly cruel and intolerant to Christians?<\/p>\n

If poor Albert, proud Brad, and despairing Tommy were to consider even the basics of true Christianity, they might discover that God welcomes intellectual investigation, that he exhorts us to \u201cbe transformed by the renewing of our minds.\u201d They might discover that God charged humankind with subduing and replenishing the earth. They might be impressed with the psalms of David, who drew so much inspiration from attending to the natural world, and the trials of Solomon and Job, whose intellectual conundrums led to reconciliation with God.<\/p>\n

Furthermore, many of Christ\u2019s own teachings are echoed in the discoveries made by Albert and Brad. Christ taught we should put aside the false dichotomies we use to elevate ourselves over others. Scripture instructs us to care for our enemies and to realize that we are all connected\u2014united in our brokenness and by the fact that we have eternity written in our hearts. Furthermore, Christ compels us to attend to our own blind spots before we criticize others for their shortcomings. All of these ideas are illustrated in I \u2665 Huckabees<\/em>, but without any acknowledgment of the source of such wisdom.<\/p>\n

Still, it is encouraging to see that Tommy and Albert are not content to settle for Eastern assurances that \u201ceverything is connected.\u201d Nor are they satisfied with nihilism and reckless self-gratification. They end up suspecting that life has meaning after all \u2026 even if they never figure out what it is. The danger in their approach is that it excuses misbehaviors as merely a necessary phase of the intellectual journey. The end credits might as well be playing to that Clinton-era theme song \u201cGo Your Own Way.\u201d It\u2019s the same \u201clesson\u201d that poisons so many American films, the one that says happiness is achieved by being true to one\u2019s own heart. If human hearts were perfect and trustworthy, then being true to them would be a fine idea. But our hearts and minds are flawed, and when we make our personal happiness the goal, what we achieve is fragile, temporary, and inferior to the joy that can be found in seeking to serve the One who designed us and who knows what is best.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This review was originally published at ChristianityTodayMovies.com. \u2013 I \u2665 Huckabees is \u201call about what it\u2019s all about.\u201d At least, that\u2019s what the studio\u2019s summary of David O. Russell\u2019s fourth film boasts. If that means that the movie asks, \u201cWhat\u2019s it all about?\u201d\u2026 they\u2019re correct. We haven\u2019t seen a movie so intent on uncovering the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[797,798],"class_list":["post-74938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-film-reviews-journal","tag-david-o-russell","tag-i-heart-huckabees"],"yoast_head":"\nI \u2665 Huckabees (2004)<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"This review was originally published at ChristianityTodayMovies.com. - I \u2665 Huckabees is "all about what it's all about." 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