I Heart Huckabees 2004

There are films and proposals that in our present times allow us to give the impression that not everything has been invented in the field of comedy cinema, despite its lukewarm public response and not too hot American criticism - which contributed to poor international distribution. I HEART HUCKABEES directed by David O. Russell in 2004 can be an example of signs of renewal in American Indie films during the early 21^st century. However, as soon as we take a closer look at the images, there are clear echoes of the screwball comedy developed in the thirties and forties, the use of those pastel colors of the late fifties become a ruthless criticism of the current consumer society.  I'm sure someone like Frank Tashlin would have loved this movie - and his visual formulation that has the longing for the great supporters of this comedy genre in the sixties - Jerry Lewis, Stanley Donen, Blake Edwards, etc.-. However, I think that the most palpable reference is the brilliant comedy, the masterpiece of Paul Thomas Anderson; PUNCH-DRUNK LOVE (2002), sharing visual similarities and the strong presence of Jon Brion in the soundtrack.

This is a film perhaps not suitable for all tastes, but which was a very pleasant surprise for me when I saw it with my friends in 2004, and progressively becomes a more ingenious than funny film, aptly developed more as a sort of musical comedy, very well translated into a careful panoramic format defined by a “Tutti-Fruti chromatism” that caters to the internal needs of its images and it does not remain just as simple and brilliant ornament, as was perhaps in the case Down with Love, 2003 by Peyton Reed which I loved by the way but for different reasons -. Russell’s images give off enough skill to propose the interaction of a series of characters that initially may seem absurd - and they are - but that in the development of their stories they have much to tell us about the search for their own identity or the meaning of an existence that is called into question, even as part of a comfortable environment.

From a premise of a classic argument of a musical comedy, spread around some characters related to a global company, Huckabees thus the title, from which emerges the one character that serves as a link between the rest of the cast.  This is Albert (Jason Schwartzman), an environmentally conscious young man who reflects on the search for the meaning of existence from a series of coincidences related to a young black immigrant. In the middle of the process, he goes to an “existential” detective agency - the best idea in the film - that will try to resolve the young guy’s identity crisis. With this plot the presence of a narcissistic executive obsessed with success, his girlfriend, a firefighter who is bitter by his intuition of existential nothingness and obsessed with the doctrines of nihilist philosophers all these characters will be interspersed. An authentic mosaic wrapped in a brilliant plot overflow and an attractive visual treatment, which sometimes even uses digital effects and almost surreal fantasies. It is true that I HEART HUCKABEES is not a particularly funny title, but at all times it is characterized by its enormous capacity for ingenuity and, what is truly great is how this is expressed cinematographically with as much inventiveness as it is with assertion.

To achieve a good result like this, there are two elements that David O. Russell manages to reverse in the film. In the first place, a magnificent direction of actors that even achieves a splendid result in Mark Walbergh’s character, and he knows how to exploit Jude Law's haughty antipathy for comedy, but that reaches a huge result in a Dustin Hoffman that reaches in my opinion one of the best roles of his entire career in a character that lent itself to the worst excesses. The other feature that gives the film its own personality is the sound counterpoint of Jon Brion who, at times, "takes over" the film, helping with his creativity and symphonic singularity to reach that " extra gram of madness" that define the best moments of the film for example; the sequence in which Jason Schwartzman and Isabelle Huppert show their sexual attraction in such an unusual way.

Finally, between the anguish before nothingness, philosophical hopes, attempts to seek happiness with love or the fragility of being aware only of the image and consumerism, the truth is that in I HEART HUCKABEES one rejoices before a personal view that without losing its ingenuity, at times seems to take us to the world of Lewis Carroll and makes this indie film as one of the most original and valuable comedies of recent years.

It has an amazing cast with: Jason Schwartzman, Dustin Hoffman, Isabelle Huppert, Jude Law, Lily Tomlin, Mark Wahlberg, Naomi Watts, Ger Duany, Kevin Dunn, Jonah Hill, Fisher Island, Tippi Hedren, Bob Gunton, Talia Shire, Richard Jenkins, Saïd Taghmaoui, Shania Twain