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The Movie Mystic
by Stephen Simon
I (HEART) HUCKABEES, 106 minutes, rated R for language and a sex scene
I (HEART) Huckabees just may be the strangest film I have ever seen. It just may
be one of the strangest films ANYONE has ever seen!
I’m not sure that there is a simple – or even complex? – way of describing the film
and I am not even sure if I liked or loved it….was bored or transfixed …was stimulated
or depressed. Maybe all of the above? I can say for sure, though, that the film is
utterly innovative in its style and subject matter and, as such, has no historical
precedent.
Maybe What’s Up Doc? meets Harold and Maude meets What The Bleep meets The Simpsons?
It is….uh….strange.
Loosely told, the film is about two “existential” detectives (Lily Tomlin and Dustin
Hoffman – both hilarious and wonderful) who delve deeply into the psyches, souls
and very essence of their clients to help them resolve complicated life issues. Their
vision of life is positive and utterly metaphysical and their mantra is literally
“we are all one.” Their counterpart, played by the estimable French actress Isabelle
Huppert, presents the other (dark) shadow side of life being cruel, manipulative
and deceitful. In essence, Tomlin, Hoffman and Huppert engage in a metaphoric battle
for the souls of the other characters in the film, plunging the audience into nothing
less than a metaphysical comedy/drama about what is real and unreal, positive and
negative.
Along the way, we meet an assortment of truly eccentric and sometimes oddball archetypes,
all of whom represent various aspects of human integration and disintegration. Most
notable are:
• Jude Law who plays a selfish, shallow, arrogant conniver in total denial of his
disintegration. His denial is, in fact, the mechanism that keeps him in a state of
ignorant bliss. When Tomlin and Hoffman start shredding that veneer, he is forced
to face his “real” self and the results are anything but pretty.
• Naomi Watts plays Law’s live-in girlfriend and her performance just may be the
most revelatory in that she starts off as the embodiment of the perfect face and
body of American advertising. She is the television spokesperson for Law’s “Huckabeees”
stores and her entire existence is built upon her physical appearance and the utterly
vapid existence that she shares with Law. When the detectives “awaken” her, she demands
to be seen as a real woman and the resultant chaos that her transformation creates
is both hilarious and poignant.
• Mark Wahlberg plays a burned-out firefighter who is so seduced by the dark side
that Huppert represents that he becomes consumed by desire for her.
Law, Watts, and Wahlberg are all pitch-perfect in their respective roles and one
can sense in their utter lack of inhibition in their performances how wild the actual
shooting of the film must have been.
The film is absolutely not for everyone! It’s “R” rating is well-earned – for language
and some sexuality. For those of you, however, who are looking for something completely
different, unsettling, entertaining, exasperating, stimulating and challenging, give
it a shot! And, without ruining the ending, the last line of dialogue in the film
is so delicious and such a perfect metaphor for the way we create obstacles in our
own lives that it is worth the journey of the film itself. I always remember the
last line of Some Like It Hot as being the best last line ever in a movie (“Nobody’s
perfect!”) – but Huckabees comes very close in its own way to matching that impact.
More than anything, Huckabees represents a bold departure for Hollywood films and
that alone makes it worth supporting. When Hollywood does dip its toe into metaphysical
material, it really helps for all of us to patronize those films so as to encourage
the production of more such films in the future.
Movie Mystic Chakra Rating for I (HEART) Huckabees (For an explanation of The chakra
rating system, please visit www.spiritualcinemacircle.com.
Chakra: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Rating: 4 3 3 3 3 4 3
Stephen Simon has produced such films as Somewhere in Time and What Dreams May
Come, produced and directed Indigo, and wrote The Force is With You: Mystical Movie
Messages That Inspire Our Lives, published by Walsch Books/Hampton Roads. He also
co-founded The Spiritual Cinema Circle [www.spiritualcinemacircle.com]. Stephen welcomes
your comments by e-mail at Stephen@Spiritualcinemacircle.com
Copyright © 2004 Stephen Simon, all rights reserved. |
| Dec 2004 |
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