Synopsis:
I HEART HUCKABEES: David O. Russell, the director of dark incest comedy SPANKING THE MONKEY, slapstick ensemble FLIRTING WITH DISASTER, and Gulf War adventure THE THREE KINGS, has established...
I HEART HUCKABEES: David O. Russell, the director of dark incest comedy SPANKING THE MONKEY, slapstick ensemble FLIRTING WITH DISASTER, and Gulf War adventure THE THREE KINGS, has established himself as a boldly original filmmaker. With his fourth film, I HEART HUCKABEES, Russell continues to defy easy definition, mixing physical comedy, existential philosophy, corporate satire, and quixotic quest. Jason Schwartzman, proving that he is capable of more than simply reviving his iconic RUSHMORE character, plays Albert, an environmental activist prone to bad poetry and self-doubt. During his campaign to stop Huckabees, a suburban superstore, from destroying marshland, Albert's group is taken over by one of the store's vapidly charming salesmen, a pitch-perfect Jude Law. Utterly distraught and questioning the meaning of life, Albert seeks the help of a bizarre husband-and-wife team of "existential detectives." By spying on Albert's daily life, they seek to help him answer that most elemental of human questions, "Why am I here?"
A stellar ensemble class including Naomi Watts, Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin, Isabelle Huppert, and an inspired Mark Wahlberg manage to do justice to the sparkling wit and intelligence of the script. In less adept hands, the pace and complexity of the film could easily become a chaotic mess. Yet Russell, in what is arguably his finest film to date, proves that a movie need not be esoteric to tackle the profound.
LE DIVORCE: LE DIVORCE, based on the novel by Diane Johnson, is a contemporary Merchant/Ivory production that explores the fundamental differences between Americans and the French, especially in matters of the heart and manners. Isabel (Kate Hudson) is a brash, outspoken Californian who travels to Paris to help her pregnant expatriot sister Roxeanne (Naomi Watts). Once there she finds that Roxeanne's cheating husband (Melvil Poupaud) has abandoned her for his sexy mistress. Determined to help Roxeanne, Isabel settles in and quickly succumbs to the charms of Paris, including its men. She embarks on her own affair with Edgar (Thierry Lhermitte), the married brother of Suzanne de Persand (Leslie Caron), Roxeanne's bourgeois mother-in-law, and falls into the stereotypical life of a French mistress, receiving expensive Hermés gifts, and undergoing a chic cultural makeover. However, Suzanne quickly learns of the affair and is enraged, claiming that Americans don't know how to have proper, temporary affairs. Upon the arrival of Isabel and Roxeanne's typically American parents (Stockard Channing and Sam Waterson), the cultural divide becomes deeper as the two families battle it out over love, marriage, infidelity, fortune and ultimately: divorce.
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