I Don't Heart Huckabees

I Netflixed I Heart Huckabees the other night, and it's been a long time since I had such a negative response to a movie. I mean, I've seen worse films, but this one got under my skin and festered. The reason I rented it is that I've been watching a lot of Naomi Watts films lately. A while back Brian mentioned that he was working on a theory that Emily Watson was the best actress in film today--I don't disagree, but I think she has competition from Watts, and I wanted to back myself up by seeing some films of hers I've missed.

Anyway, I got to this film, and I'm left wondering--how did it get made? Does David O. Russell have that much clout that he could have pitched this to Focus and they nod their heads like Bobblehead dolls, and say, "Let's do it!" For the uninitiated, the film is about "existential detectives," who solve people's existential crises. It's full of blather about reality and connection and the universe. I wouldn't be surprised if Russell wrote the script when he was in college while on an all-nighter, full of benzadrine and cocaine.

I would have read this script and thrown it in the garbage, but someone ponied up dough for it. And got a great cast--Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin, Jude Law, Isabelle Huppert, and, of course Watts. (It also stars Jason Schwartzman and Mark Wahlberg, but they are not draws, in my book). There are several moments when I wanted to just give up on the whole thing, perhaps the nadir was when Schwartzman and Huppert wallow in a puddle, smearing mud on each other before rutting.

Of Russell's other films, I have seen Three Kings, Flirting With Disaster, and Spanking the Monkey, which I all liked but did not love. I'll be very careful about seeing his next film.