I like watching films on Friday mornings. The weekend beckons temptingly without me having been worn down by the afternoon grind, which means that I can afford to look at the sort of thing that allows me to engage my brain rather than simply soothing it.
Honestly, though, I Heart Huckabees is a joy any time, anywhere. I first saw it shortly after its release and I was blown away by its sheer joyous weirdness - here was a film that was both intelligent and absurd, a thoughtful, good-hearted, good-looking piece that posed a bunch of interesting questions and managed to provide a satisfying conclusion whilst leaving me with plenty to mull over in the years that followed.
The film begins by introducing one Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman), an idealistic young environmentalist troubled by the kind of life questions that can keep you awake half the night if you let them - is existence truly meaningless, or is there some kind of bigger picture that he simply isn't seeing. He has found, we learn, a mysterious business card in his jacket pocket, one which has led him to the office of existentialist detectives Vivian and Bernard Jaffey (Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman respectively). By tracking every detail of his life, they claim that they will eventually be able to conclusively tell him what everything is all about.
Most of Albert's concerns, it turns out, centre around his cause and his job security, as Brad Stand (Jude Law) tries to force him out of his role as leader of the Open Spaces coalition. Brad works for Huckabees, a Walmart-esque corporation with about as much concern for the environment as you'd think. He's dating the beautiful, perky Dawn (Naomi Watts), the face of the company and the star of some truly iconic adverts. Before long, Brad is also trying the Jaffeys' unique brand of existentialist therapy. Meanwhile, Albert runs into French nihilist Caterine Vauban (Isabelle Huppert), who offers him an entirely new perspective on life's trials and tribulations.
It's all done with a light, deft touch and a certain playful faith in humanity - the cast are mostly excellent, with Schwartzman as implausibly adorable as ever. Naomi Watts, meanwhile, hits just the right note of barely-concealed desperation as a woman in the throes of realising that her entire role in life is to be pretty. The sole sour note comes in the form of Jude Law, who hams it up just a little too much as antagonist Brad. This is the sort of movie where performances require a certain level of pantomime, but Law turns it up to eleven and lands up making Brad slappable in all the wrong ways. This is only one small gripe, however, about a film that makes me feel better about the world in general and my place within it in particular.
Note: The above would probably be a decent point to stop, but before I do I just need to slip in a quickie mention for Jon Brion's genuinely brilliant soundtrack, a thoughtful but mischievous affair. It's worth taking a listen even after you've viewed the movie, because this is where you get the full-length songs, whose lyrics summarise the subject matter more wittily and concisely than I could ever dream of.
No comments:
Post a Comment