by A. Beatty McDonald

David O Russell’s “I Heart Huckabees” isn’t much of a movie.  It is more a meandering monologue disguised as discourse between a group of misfits trying to gain insight into the true nature of things. 

Albert, played with disaffection by Jason Schwartzman, is an aspiring environmentalist fighting urban sprawl with poems.  Vivian and Bernard Jaffe (Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman) are the existential detectives hired by Albert to find meaning in a string of coincidences he has been experiencing.  Tommy Corn (Mark Wahlberg) is Albert’s “other”, a sort of spiritual sponsor, and the film’s funniest character.  Brad Stand, played by Jude Law, acts as Albert’s nemesis and the embodiment of urban sprawl/capitalism with his SUV and uber skinny model of a girlfriend, played by Naomi Watts. 

Isabelle Huppert, in a small but not insignificant role, plays foil to the Jaffe’s insistence that the universe and everything in it is connected and made of the same basic materials that have their roots in the cosmic furnace of the big bang. 

All these characters chime in, in their own way to further along the philosophies of the auteur, lacking any real emotion or depth.  And that is the heart of the film, the philosophical and psychological ideas of Russell as perceived by a witty and very good-looking cast.

There are many contrivances in the film, some work while others fall flat.  References to Magritte work until, in typical Hollywood fashion, they are explained to the audience.  The visual imagery of Albert’s inner journey is thin and sophomoric. A few more pounds of the brow on the writing table were in order, I believe, to work out the machete metaphor to better affect. I mean, really, are we on a trip to the heart of darkness, or what?

The best scenes involve Jude Law’s character struggling to keep his picture perfect life together while the mantra “How am I not myself?” is repeated over and over in his mind.  Law’s facial expression shows his ego splitting into fragments better than any of Russell’s imagery. 

Law is the embodiment of fractals spinning outward, smaller and smaller until nothing is left but the spaces between, the disintegration of self Bernard wants for his clients.  A simple inflection to Brad’s “How am I not myself?” mantra  – “HOW am I not myself?”, “How am I, not my SELF?” –  might get us to the main point of Russell’s film: how can people go through life not confronting these larger issues, how do we fail to recognize the infinitely absurd human condition.

There are no new questions raised in this film, but it is an interesting rumination on some basic questions of self while being a little simple and tired.  Mark Wahlberg and Jude Law are highlights in a film that, as Vivian Jaffe says, “…prefers to remain on the surface of things.”  Russell is a director to watch, and this is better than most drivel out of Hollywood.  In the end though, it is bit like a toothless drunk trying to tell you a story, scattered, amusing at times, and no bite to speak of.  Worth the money at The Somerville Theatre.