Jon: I Heart Huckabees is a great movie that simultaneously revels in and mocks the existential philosophies that we all know and love.
Alexis: It is a conflict between the Emersonian idea that everything in nature is connected, and the bleak outlooks of Jean-Paul Sartre.
Jon: The film's plot - if it can be said to really have one - is loosely based around Albert Markovski, played with Jason Schwartzman's usual amazing verve. Markovski, an anti-suburban sprawl activist, reports to the Jaffes, a husband-and-wife team of existential detectives (Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman). Markovski hires them to investigate a series of coincidental run-ins he's had with Stephen, a tall "African guy."
Alexis: The existential detectives, who "spy" on Markovski everywhere - including the bathroom-discover there is more to Markovski's life than just that strange coincidence with Stephen. Markovski is wrapped up in a conflict with Brad Stand, played by the always malleable and incredibly attractive Jude Law. Stand is an advertiser for the Wal-Mart-type store, Huckabees, and he took over Markovski's position as chairman of an environmental group. Stand also hires the Jaffes for what appears to be the same reasons as Markovski, causing Markovski to flee to the open, apathetic arms of Caterine Vauban (Isabelle Huppert), and causing Stand's life to be turned inside out.
Jon: A tangle of developments ensues - the funniest being a scene in which Markovski and his "other," Tommy Corn (Mark Wahlberg), a petroleum-conscious firefighter, sit down to dinner with Stephen's adopted parents, the evangelical, suburban, sport utility vehicle-driving Hootem family. The plot of the movie and all its complicated twisting is not its real point, however. It's a movie that says "look how silly and occasionally profound we as humans can be."
Alexis: I didn't get that at all. I thought it was funny; I appreciated it because it took a literary/philosophical movement, and made it into this movie that works. It reminds me of Alexander Pope's The Rape of the Lock . It's satirical, yet intelligent, and it shows humanity at its absolute worst.
Jon: I agree, but you can't dismiss the message at the end of the movie, when Corn and Markovski remark to each other "Sounds like you've seen a little truth." I would also qualify "humanity at its worst" by saying "humanity at its most absurd." Several extremely dark, which is not to say unfunny, jokes give the movie a nice satirical edge. Bernard Jaffe (Hoffman) remarks that the investigations have been a little odd since "that September thing," and Stephen, a Sudanese refugee, becomes less of a victim and more a way for one set of characters to make a point. The Hootem Family argues about Stephen's homeland as a way to affirm American life, while Vauban remarks that "he was orphaned by war, you were orphaned by neglect" to the somewhat spoiled, self-righteous Markovski.
Alexis: The characters in Huckabees make the audience care for them. But the only sympathetic or empathetic characters are the Jaffes. They try to bring their fellow characters together: At the end, though, it isn't the Jaffes that do this, but all the characters themselves. It's existentialism at its very worst - or perhaps its very best.
Jon: You could say the movie is all about synthesis. The final shot of the film involves The Jaffes and Vauban realizing that, regardless of whether everything is connected or isolated, everything exists, and that, in some way, everything is beautiful.
Alexis: A film like this is completely unique and only works if it has a complete understanding of existentialism. I would rate this film four rocks out of one big swamp - a great movie.
Jon: While not totally unique-during Huckabees I kept thinking I was back in Woody Allen's heyday - the film is great. I give it a rating of five out of five vomiting country music stars (go see the movie, you'll understand).