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I Heart Huckabees (2004)

tomatometer

62

Average Rating: 6.3/10
Reviews Counted: 185
Fresh: 114 | Rotten: 71

No consensus yet.

51

Average Rating: 5.7/10
Critic Reviews: 41
Fresh: 21 | Rotten: 20

No consensus yet.

audience

75

liked it
Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 158,882

My Rating

Movie Info

Five years after achieving commercial and critical success with his film Three Kings, director and screenwriter David O. Russell returns to the more idiosyncratic territory of his earlier work with this intelligent and offbeat comedy. Bernard and Vivian Jaffe (Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin) are a married couple who run an existential detective agency where they sift through the lives of their clients in order to discover the source of their angst. The Jaffes' latest client is Albert Markovski

R, 1 hr. 46 min.

Drama, Comedy

David O. Russell, Jeff Baena

Feb 22, 2005

$12.7M

Fox Searchlight

Cast

All Critics (186) | Top Critics (41) | Fresh (123) | Rotten (72) | DVD (38)

A rewarding- frustrating smart-silly comedy of pretentious- modest ambitions.

October 22, 2004 Full Review Source: Orlando Sentinel | Comment
Orlando Sentinel
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Don't think about this loony metaphysical comedy too much. Just go with it and, chances are, you'll get it.

October 15, 2004 Full Review Source: Sacramento Bee | Comment
Sacramento Bee
Top Critic IconTop Critic

So willfully, smugly eccentric that it grows tiresome rather quickly.

October 15, 2004 Full Review Source: Houston Chronicle | Comment
Houston Chronicle
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Adventurous, challenging and filled with small moments of delight. Unfortunately, it's also self-indulgent, repetitious and the sort of movie you wish was great but isn't.

October 15, 2004 Comment
Detroit News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

You have to give everyone involved credit for mounting a joke that, if not of Dadaist proportions, should prove pretty funny to everyone except the rubes who wander in expecting to see something they can comprehend.

October 15, 2004 Full Review Source: Detroit Free Press | Comment
Detroit Free Press
Top Critic IconTop Critic

In a way, the movie is about everything and nothing, but its real problem has less to do with its philosophical ambition than with its scattered, half-digested musings.

October 15, 2004 Comment
Denver Rocky Mountain News
Top Critic IconTop Critic

Brilliant existential comedy for adults only.

December 24, 2010 Full Review Source: Common Sense Media | Comment
Common Sense Media

Russell directs an excellent cast in a thought provoking existential comedy that is very funny and very well acted.

April 29, 2009 Full Review Source: Cinema Crazed | Comment
Cinema Crazed

I have no idea what the film is really all about, but this top line cast makes it so much fun, it doesn't seem to matter.

October 18, 2008 Full Review Source: Urban Cinefile | Comment
Urban Cinefile

This feverish state-of-the-split-nation address finds Russell tossing everything that matters -- and more -- into the pot, and producing a pretty indigestible and very messy stew.

June 24, 2006 Full Review Source: Time Out | Comment

If you're up for it, you'll discover a fresh, funny little romp unafraid to tackle the biggest issues of all.

April 1, 2006 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

Despite an outstanding cast of actors and some funny moments, I never cared enough to believe that this movie was anything other than pretentious; the kind of movie they might show in Philosophy 101 classes.

September 30, 2005 Full Review Source: Three Movie Buffs | Comment (1)
Three Movie Buffs

Maddeningly uneven but mildly amusing.

May 4, 2005 Full Review Source: Lessons of Darkness | Comment
Lessons of Darkness

Si vous êtes prêt à suivre à votre maximum d'attention une comédie qui ne semble pas faire beaucoup de sens, vous risquez [...] de vous y retrouver.

April 16, 2005 Comment

I ♥ Huckabees might be too smart for its own good, but that also seems to be the point. Russell extols liberal activism while deflating its self-importance...

April 14, 2005 Full Review Source: Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema | Comment
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema

A high-concept, high-minded piece of pseudointellectual trash, "I Heart Huckabees" is one of those stink bombs the intelligentsia like to champion.

March 30, 2005 Comments (3)
Bangor Daily News (Maine)

Those foolish enough to try to figure out what it might actually all mean are doomed to failure and may indeed be the butt of Russell's joke. The rest of us would be advised to just go along for the ride.

March 23, 2005 Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | Comment
Empire Magazine

Albert undergoes a singularly spastic mind-trip.

March 20, 2005 Full Review Source: PopMatters | Comment
PopMatters

It's more fun to talk about the movie than to actually watch the movie.

March 10, 2005 Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | Comment
7M Pictures

...it's clearly sincere in its attempts to deal with life's problems, perhaps too sincere, however, to be anything but sporadically funny. (Two-disc Special Edition)

March 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis

...while it is little more than a lightweight charade masquerading as deep wisdom, there were parts of it I enjoyed.

March 6, 2005 Full Review Source: Movie Metropolis | Comment
Movie Metropolis
More Critic Reviews

Audience Reviews for I Heart Huckabees

Mark Wahlberg is the balls. I never thought I'd say that. Most of the other actors are somewhat less convincing and at times some of them actually don't seem to know what movie they are in. (Isabelle!) Existential caper is at once profoundly enjoyable and infinitely flawed.

March 27, 2007
brooklynspo

Super Reviewer

The general opinion about this film seems curiously divided between finding it either smart or pretentious. For me it is neither, but just a quirky and rather funny story that makes welcome use of some existentialist issues and a great cast. Good, but nothing special.

December 29, 2010
blacksheepboy

Super Reviewer

    1. Bernard Jaffe: No time for infinity? Gotta piece together a theory?
    – Submitted by Alicia F (2 months ago)
    1. Brad Stand: How am I not myself?
    – Submitted by Tomas K (4 months ago)

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