I ♥ Huckabees

This movie recounts the story of several people and their association with a department store called Huckabees. It is an odd yet wonderful movie that tells the interconnected tales of a crusader against suburban sprawl, a petroleum-phobic fireman, a smooth-talking executive and his girlfriend, and an agency of existential detectives.

Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman), president of an environmental group called Open Spaces, experiences an odd coincidence: He keeps seeing the same man. After finding a business card in a loaner jacket from a fancy restaurant, Albert visits Vivian Jaffe, Existential Detective (deftly and dryly played by Lily Tomlin). Albert shares with Vivian his dilemma, and asks her to take his case.

Vivian and her husband, Bernard (played by Dustin Hoffman), agree to take him on. Explaining Existential theories, Bernard demonstrates interconnectedness using a blanket. He and Vivian begin to follow Albert in all aspects of his life to piece together the reasons for his coincidence and to help him control his situation.

The Jaffes meet Albert’s nemesis, Brad Stand (played by Jude Law). Albert and Brad both work for Open Spaces, trying to block the despoiling of marshland by the corporation that owns Huckabees. Brad’s ability to charm people and work within the system contrasts comically with Albert’s inept social skills, which include poetry performances in the pursuit of justice, his inability to conform to social convention, and refusal to use paths open to him to achieve his goals. Albert places the blame for everything that goes wrong in his life at the feet of Brad.

Brad hires the detectives as well, but only to torture Albert. Unfortunately for Brad, his girlfriend, Dawn, takes the lessons of the Jaffes to heart, and undergoes a crisis of self as she questions her ability to perform her job as spokesperson for Huckabees.
The detectives’ methods include tailing Albert, holding parties, following Albert’s co-workers, and introducing him to his Other, the person that will help him understand himself. But Albert and Tommy feel that progress has halted in their lives, and so turn away from the Jaffes. They meet with Caterine Vauban(played by Isabelle Huppert), a former student and now rival of the Jaffe method. She insinuates herself into the cases of Albert and Tommy, and then, by extension, Brad and Dawn. Existential methods clash with Nihilism as Caterine leads both men to extreme and ridiculous actions.

Several scenes in this movie compete in absurdity, including one in which Vivian and Bernard exchange passionate kisses in front of their client. Bernard’s scene of teaching a method of getting in touch with the infinite involves Albert climbing into a body bag and being zipped into it. Albert’s subsequent bizarre hallucinations consist of him seeing images of the people in his life and taking machetes to them. Hoffman’s soft-as-an-elementary-schoolteacher voice and slightly condescending attitude turn what could have been mere silliness into high comedy.

All the other characters use the Jaffes. Brad uses the detectives to get Albert to let go of his coalition, Tommy uses them until he finds a more resonating theory with Caterine, and Dawn uses the detectives to discover her dissatisfaction with her job of prostituting her body in TV commercials for a department store.

Eventually, all the storylines converge, proving that all things are interconnected, or at least they can be in fiction. This story shows us the unhappiness of both the conformist and non-conformist who take no notice of the big picture. A study in contrasts, Huckabees ably satirizes, yet empathizes, with modern life. No one character possesses the meaning of life, but all the characters work to get closer to it by the end of the film. Slightly confusing, but worth the effort.