Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7353 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-04-18
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 102 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
Billed as "an existential comedy," I Heart Huckabees is a flawed yet endearingly audacious screwball romp that dares to ponder life's biggest questions. Much of director David O. Russell's philosophical humor is dense, talky, and impenetrable, leading critic Roger Ebert to observe that "it leaves the viewer out of the loop," and suggesting that Russell's screenplay (written with his assistant, Jeff Baena) is admirably bold yet frustratingly undisciplined. Russell's ideas are big but his expression of them is frenetic, centering on the unlikely pairing of an environmentalist (Jason Schwartzman) and a firefighter (Mark Wahlberg) as they depend on existential detectives (Lily Tomlin, Dustin Hoffman) and a French nihilist (Isabelle Huppert) to make sense of their existential crises, brought on (respectively) by a two-faced chain-store executive (Jude Law) and his spokesmodel girlfriend (Naomi Watts), and the aftermath of 9/11's terrorism. No brief description can do justice to Russell's comedic conceit; you'll either be annoyed and mystified or elated and delighted by this wacky primer for coping with 21st century lunacy. Deserving of its mixed reviews, I Heart Huckabees is an audacious mess, like life itself, and accepting that is the key to enjoying both. --Jeff Shannon

Synopsis
David O. Russell, the director of dark incest comedy SPANKING THE MONKEY, slapstick ensemble FLIRTING WITH DISASTER, and Gulf War adventure THE THREE KINGS; established himself as a boldly original filmmaker. With his fourth film, I HEART HUCKABEES, Russell continues to defy easy definition, mixing physical comedy, existential philosophy, corporate satire, and quixotic quest. Jason Schwartzman, proving that he is capable of more than simply reviving his iconic RUSHMORE character, plays Albert, an environmental activist prone to bad poetry and self-doubt. During his campaign to stop Huckabees, a suburban superstore, from destroying marshland, Albert's group is taken over by one of the store's vapidly charming salesmen, a pitch-perfect Jude Law. Utterly distraught and questioning the meaning of life, Albert seeks the help of a bizarre husband-and-wife team of 'existential detectives'. By spying on Albert's daily life, they seek to help him answer that most elemental of human questions, 'Why am I here

Customer Reviews

Tedious existentialism
Existential comedy can, it would seem, be quite tedious. Only worth watching to see the ever wonderful Naomi Watts.

I Heart something a little more cohesive
I rented this DVD from Amazon on the advice of a work colleague who claimed it was `the best film ever' and that she made a point of recommending it to everyone she met. Whilst Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin excel as `existential detectives', the film as a whole comes across as a pretentious mess of half-baked ideas and in-jokes. That's not to say that the film is totally without merit; there is some great interplay and dialogue, particularly between wanabee environmental activist Albert and Mark Wahlberg's insecure and emotionally stunted fireman, Tommy. However, the novelty soon wears off and the disparate elements soon become tired and irritating. To sum up: Watch this film if you want an hour and a half of sitting in front of something that won't challenge you but won't engage you either; it may well entertain you though without you really knowing why, and ultimately that's all a film has to do.

Emperor's new clothes....
Some nice performances and slick pseudo-indie direction, but ultimately a disappointment. I get the impression that you're supposed to see past the irritating plot to something clever, but unfortunately I didn't see it.