Of the gala presentations at this year’s Toronto Film Festival David Russell’s I Heart Huckabees is one of the most intriguing. Check out the Festival-provided synopsis:
I ♥ HUCKABEES begins with Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman), an environmental activist who has been experiencing an alarming series of coincidences ‚Äì the meaning of which escapes him. Albert enlists the help of two Existential Detectives, Bernard and Vivian Jaffe (Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin), to make sense of it all. The duo devote themselves to understanding the minutiae of his life and relationships, including Albert‚Äô s conflict with Brad Stand (Jude Law), an executive climbing the corporate ladder at Huckabees, a popular chain of department stores.
In Russell’s masterfully directed and scripted turn of events, Brad comes to meet the detectives, and he also decides to hire them, unleashing his picture-perfect life to their scrutiny. Their presence soon threatens the balance of this perfection, as well as his relationship with Huckabees spokesmodel girlfriend, Dawn Campbell (Naomi Watts).
Meanwhile, Albert befriends Tommy Corn (Mark Wahlberg), a disgruntled ex-client of the detectives who has fallen under the influence of their absolute rival – French nihilist Caterine Vauban (Isabelle Huppert). It’s not long before Albert begins to see things differently, and he and Tommy fire up a world’s worth of side-splitting trouble.
Based on that it sounds like a fun ride to me, if nothing else it’s got one killer cast, and raising the stakes a little more is the film’s website – a note-perfect spoof of corporate America, complete with these mock ads.
Mmmm … Naomi Watts …
