I ♥ Huckabees

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I ♥ Huckabees
Directed by David O. Russell
Produced by Gregory Goodman
Scott Rudin
David O. Russell
Written by David O. Russell
Jeff Baena
Starring Dustin Hoffman
Isabelle Huppert
Jude Law
Jason Schwartzman
Lily Tomlin
Mark Wahlberg
Naomi Watts
Music by Jon Brion
Cinematography Peter Deming
Editing by Robert K. Lambert
Distributed by Fox Searchlight Pictures
Release date(s) October 1, 2004 (limited)
October 22, 2004 (wide)
Running time 106 min.
Language English
Official website
All Movie Guide profile
IMDb profile

I ♥ Huckabees [1] is a film released in 2004. It was produced and directed by David O. Russell, who co-wrote the screenplay with Jeff Baena.

Contents

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Albert Markovski (Schwartzman) is a young man who heads the local chapter of an environmental group, the "Open Spaces Coalition". Hoping to find the answer to what would seem to be an absurd coincidence in his life, he contacts two existential detectives, Bernard and Vivian Jaffe (Hoffman and Tomlin). These detectives offer Albert their optimistic brand of existentialism — they name it universal interconnectivity (this has some tenets of romantic or even transcendentalist philosophies) — and spy on him, ostensibly to help him solve the coincidence. Brad Stand (Law) is a shallow power executive at Huckabees, a chain of stores akin to Wal-Mart or Target. He infiltrates Open Spaces and charismatically displaces Albert as the leader. Dawn Campbell (Watts) is Brad's live-in girlfriend and the face and voice of Huckabees; she appears in all of the store's commercials.

Bernard describes universal connectivity to Albert through the use of a blanket.
Bernard describes universal connectivity to Albert through the use of a blanket.

Bernard and Vivian introduce Albert to Tommy Corn (Wahlberg), an obsessively anti-petroleum firefighter. Tommy is assigned to Albert as his "other", a kindred spirit. Tommy ends up abandoning and undermining the Jaffes by introducing Albert to Caterine Vauban (Huppert), a former student of the Jaffes who espouses a seemingly opposing nihilistic/absurdist philosophy.

She teaches them to disconnect their inner beings from their daily lives and their problems, to synthesize a non-thinking state of "pure being". Being lifted from their troubles, they wish to keep that feeling forever, yet she tells them that it is inevitable to be drawn back to the human drama, and to understand that the core truth of that drama is misery and meaninglessness. In Brad's further attempts to undercut Albert, he and Dawn also meet and are influenced by Bernard and Vivian.

Albert attains enlightenment when he synthesizes the two opposing outlooks of the Jaffes and Vauban to realize the cosmic truth of everything. By way of sympathy, Albert understands that he and Brad are no different, that everything really is inextricably connected, but that these connections necessarily arise from the often senselessly painful reality of human existence.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Cast

[edit] Main cast

  • Dustin Hoffman - Bernard Jaffe, who plays one of two "existential detectives" (a character, according to Russell, somewhat inspired by Robert Thurman).
  • Lily Tomlin - Vivian Jaffe, the other detective and wife of Hoffman's character
  • Jason Schwartzman - Albert Markovski, an environmentalist who hires the couple played by Hoffman and Tomlin.
  • Jude Law - Brad Stand, the nemesis of the environmentalist who is climbing the corporate ladder at Huckabees, a Wal-Mart or Target-like chain of superstores.
  • Naomi Watts - Dawn Campbell, the spokesmodel for Huckabees who lives with Stand.
  • Mark Wahlberg - Tommy Corn, an angry post-9/11 firefighter who attempts to draw Albert towards Caterine's nihilistic philosophy.
  • Isabelle Huppert - Caterine Vauban, the nihilistic counterpart to the existential detectives whose philosophy may also have some root in deconstruction and absurdism; This seems to be punctuated through her French background and even her French pronunciation at first of Albert's name (al'bɛʁ) like French absurdist writer Albert Camus.

[edit] Supporting cast

[edit] Reception

The film opened October 1, 2004 with a record-setting $73,044 per screen average in New York and Los Angeles. Critical opinion for the film was mixed. Some critics were displeased with the overabundance of light metaphysical and philosophical subject matter while others praised the film's quirky humor and introduction to existentialism. Some found the screenplay, written by David O. Russell and Jeff Baena, to be dizzying and unfocused while many celebrated its inventiveness and originality. Most critics agreed that the actors' performances were well done, particularly that of Mark Wahlberg as Tommy Corn.

Despite some harsh reviews, the film has drawn a cult following since its initial release and has performed well in DVD sales.

[edit] Marketing

In an advertising campaign for the film, five fictional websites were created. They were portrayed as if they were actual websites involving the characters and organizations featured in the movie. Each website had a link called "Disclaimer" at the bottom that leads to FOX Searchlight's official website for the film. The websites are as follows:

  • The Huckabees Corporation: The "official" website for the chain of Huckabees stores. Features the store history, announcements, three television ads featuring Dawn Campbell and a banner promoting the Huckabees collaboration with the Open Spaces Coalition.
    • This website is inactive as of January 2006. It can be revisited at the Internet Archive through the following link: [1]
  • Open Spaces Coalition: This website is run in part by Albert Markovski and describes the importance of the marshlands he is trying to protect and methods of aiding the cause. Also on the website is poetry written by Markovski, downloadable flyers, and a charter that has yet to be posted. The Open Spaces Coalition website is notably less sophisticated than the Huckabees Corporation website.
    • This website is inactive as of January 2006. It can be revisited at the Internet Archive through the following link: [2]
  • Jaffe & Jaffe, Existential Detectives: The website promoting the Jaffe's detective agency. It explains the methodology of the detectives, provides two case studies and an online questionnaire. The website also stresses that the detectives do not believe in advertising or promotional websites but they are "in need of 23% more business".
    • This website is inactive as of January 2006. It can be revisited at the Internet Archive through the following link: [3]
  • Tommy Corn's Blog: The personal weblog of firefighter Tommy Corn. The blog was infrequently updated and only contained seven entries. Real comments used to be allowed to be posted, but these comments have been deleted and it is no longer allowed to make them. This may be due in part to the fact that people would mention the film which distracts from the "reality" of the website. The last update was on November 2, 2004 and urges readers to vote. In Corn's user profile (which has been viewed over 13,000 times), it lists his favorite movie as The Seventh Seal and his favorite musical artists as Jefferson Airplane and Jon Brion. Brion wrote the score for the film.
  • Caterine Vauban: The website of Caterine Vauban, author of "If Not Now".
    • This website is inactive as of January 2006, but can be revisited at the Internet Archive through the following link: [4].

[edit] Soundtrack

Main article: I ♥ Huckabees (soundtrack)

Jon Brion provided the score and seven original songs for the film. His unique methods for writing previous film scores (Punch-Drunk Love, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind) involved very close collaboration with the director. Through this process, David O. Russell was able to sit in the same room with Brion and watch an early cut of the film. Russell described what he wanted to portray and Brion would compose music to Russell's descriptions. The process can be seen on a featurette on the film's special edition DVD.

David O. Russell, while working with Brion, had come across Brion's first solo album, Meaningless. Russell has mentioned that Brion's album asks similar questions to the ones Russell was trying to ask with I ♥ Huckabees. In particular, Russell notes that the questions on Meaningless are closer to the questions directed from Caterine Vauban's negative and dark point of view.

[edit] Visual effects

The home-grown Visual Effects for this film were done on 3 Macintosh G5 systems by Russell Barrett, Scott Puckett and Joe Kastely here.

[edit] Controversy

In March of 2007, two videos were leaked onto YouTube revealing major on-set arguments between David O. Russell and Lily Tomlin. The first video is footage of a scene in a car containing Tomlin, Dustin Hoffman and Isabelle Huppert in the front of the car with Mark Wahlberg and Naomi Watts in the back seat. Russell cannot be heard, but Tomlin is repeatedly shouting angrily at Russell's direction. At one point, Tomlin attempts to get out of the car; at another, she berates Watts and Hoffman. The other actors in the scene remain mostly silent throughout the video, except Hoffman, who suggests they carry on shooting the scene. The car scene was never used in the final film.

In the second video, a scene is being filmed in the Jaffe detective offices, Tomlin, Hoffman and Jason Schwartzman are present. Russell gives Tomlin direction until Tomlin criticizes Russell's directing style. The video is then cut to moments later when Russell rises from the floor and shoves props off of the desk Tomlin is acting behind. Russell shouts obscenities at Tomlin, storming off the set, only to come back a short while later. Russell also throws an object from off-camera at Tomlin, who dodges it. The argument between the two briefly continues until Russell exits the set again, knocking over a lamp on his way out.

When the Miami New Times asked Tomlin about the videos during an interview for her upcoming performance at the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts, she responded, “I love David. There was a lot of pressure in making the movie — even the way it came out you could see it was a very free-associative, crazy movie, and David was under a tremendous amount of pressure. And he’s a very free-form kind of guy anyway.” [1]

Soon after the videos were leaked onto YouTube, the incident was humorously parodied on The Michael Showalter Showalter with Paul Rudd and Michael Showalter in the role of Tomlin and Russell, respectively.[2]

[edit] References and notes

1 Pronunciation - 'I Heart Huckabees' is used in advertisements for the film, 'I Love Huckabees' is a less commonly used alternative.

  1. ^ Riptide - Lily Tomlin Reacts to Leaked Videos at Miami New Times online
  2. ^ I Heart Showalter at College Humor

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

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