cydonorb
Bluelighter
I (Heart) Huckabees
Once I realized that David O Russells' (SPANKING THE MONKEY, FLIRTING WITH DISASTER & THREE KINGS) "existentialist comedy" was going absolutely nowhere & was about as deep as a piss stream I was able to sit back & enjoy the universally excellent performances by the cast. Jason Schwartzman & Mark Wahlberg give the best performances of their careers with Wahlberg's spot on comic timing making their scenes together a real treat...yeah I know I wrote "comic timing" & "Mark Wahlberg" in the same sentence but believe me, here he's a revelation. Jude Law is perfect as the slimy corporate lackey & Isabel Huppert is hilarious in a role that recalls a mix of Linda Fiorentino in LAST SEDUCTION & Huppert's deranged role in THE PIANO TEACHER. Naomi Watts, in a small role, once again reveals another dimension & continues to amaze. Oddly enough the weakest performances are turned in by Lily Tomlin (one of my all time fave comic actresses) & Dustin Hoffman. Both seem to be on auto pilot as if they (justifiably so) do not trust either the director or his material.
As I said the film goes absolutely nowhere as the characters are but caricatures, there's no real story & Russell understands
existentialism about as well as I do astrophysics. There are a LOT of really good individual scenes in the film & some pretty ingenuous set pieces but nothing adds up. But it certainly is a unique film & probably the oddest movie made & released by a major studio since Russ Meyer's BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. What makes I (HEART)HUCKABEES ultimately so infuriating is that there is SO much good in it & the cast is so letter perfect that the concept & the actors really deserved a lot more effort & thought from Russell.
I would've felt a lot harsher towards the film had I any loftier
expectations on the way in. I knew the film was problematic & it
wasn't even on my list of theatrical must sees but I just happened to be walking past a theatre that had bargain matinees & its start time was only 10 minutes away so I figured what the hell. Two interesting things happened after the movie: I heard a fellow patron exclaim "I paid to see a DAVID O Russell movie but what I got was a KEN Russell movie", a remark that drew multiple murmurs or "good one" from all within earshot (including yours truly). The other interesting thing was that I saw Peter Dinkladge, the "little person" from the great film from last year THE STATION AGENT. He really IS little, btw...I mean I know he's a little person but MAN is that guy tiny!! He'd have to stand on tippy toes just to punch me in the balls! He’s currently starring in RICHARD III off Broadway, which is I guess why he was at the matinee...or perhaps his STATION AGENT royalty cheque didn't clear this month. Anyhow, I heard him exclaim to the attractive woman he was with "what a pile of crap that was. So much waste. Could've been good".
So take it from Cydonorb & Richard III, I (HEART) HUCKABEES is an
interesting dud. Not worthless but not nearly as good as it could've been.
Once I realized that David O Russells' (SPANKING THE MONKEY, FLIRTING WITH DISASTER & THREE KINGS) "existentialist comedy" was going absolutely nowhere & was about as deep as a piss stream I was able to sit back & enjoy the universally excellent performances by the cast. Jason Schwartzman & Mark Wahlberg give the best performances of their careers with Wahlberg's spot on comic timing making their scenes together a real treat...yeah I know I wrote "comic timing" & "Mark Wahlberg" in the same sentence but believe me, here he's a revelation. Jude Law is perfect as the slimy corporate lackey & Isabel Huppert is hilarious in a role that recalls a mix of Linda Fiorentino in LAST SEDUCTION & Huppert's deranged role in THE PIANO TEACHER. Naomi Watts, in a small role, once again reveals another dimension & continues to amaze. Oddly enough the weakest performances are turned in by Lily Tomlin (one of my all time fave comic actresses) & Dustin Hoffman. Both seem to be on auto pilot as if they (justifiably so) do not trust either the director or his material.
As I said the film goes absolutely nowhere as the characters are but caricatures, there's no real story & Russell understands
existentialism about as well as I do astrophysics. There are a LOT of really good individual scenes in the film & some pretty ingenuous set pieces but nothing adds up. But it certainly is a unique film & probably the oddest movie made & released by a major studio since Russ Meyer's BEYOND THE VALLEY OF THE DOLLS. What makes I (HEART)HUCKABEES ultimately so infuriating is that there is SO much good in it & the cast is so letter perfect that the concept & the actors really deserved a lot more effort & thought from Russell.
I would've felt a lot harsher towards the film had I any loftier
expectations on the way in. I knew the film was problematic & it
wasn't even on my list of theatrical must sees but I just happened to be walking past a theatre that had bargain matinees & its start time was only 10 minutes away so I figured what the hell. Two interesting things happened after the movie: I heard a fellow patron exclaim "I paid to see a DAVID O Russell movie but what I got was a KEN Russell movie", a remark that drew multiple murmurs or "good one" from all within earshot (including yours truly). The other interesting thing was that I saw Peter Dinkladge, the "little person" from the great film from last year THE STATION AGENT. He really IS little, btw...I mean I know he's a little person but MAN is that guy tiny!! He'd have to stand on tippy toes just to punch me in the balls! He’s currently starring in RICHARD III off Broadway, which is I guess why he was at the matinee...or perhaps his STATION AGENT royalty cheque didn't clear this month. Anyhow, I heard him exclaim to the attractive woman he was with "what a pile of crap that was. So much waste. Could've been good".
So take it from Cydonorb & Richard III, I (HEART) HUCKABEES is an
interesting dud. Not worthless but not nearly as good as it could've been.
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