i heart huckabees - directed by D.Russell

This film follows four different individuals – an environmental activist, Albert (Jason Schwartzman); a fireman, Tommy (Mark Wahlberg); a TV commercial model, Dawn (Naomi Watts); and a corporate hot-shot, Brad (Jude Law) – who employ "Existential Detectives" Vivian and Bernard Jaffe (Lilly Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman), and their rival, author Caterine Vauban (Isabelle Huppert) in an attempt to bring meaning to their lives.

The story follows the main character Albert, a poet and activist, who wants to be recognized and important. His life and work situation instead is falling apart. We also follow Tommy who questions everything after 9/11 and whose marriage starts to unravel because of all these questions. Albert originally hires the "Existential Detectives” to figure out three coincidences that recently took place in his life. Later on in the movie Brad hires the "Existential Detectives" to undermine Albert but it back fires and they slowly unravel his life. The "Existential Detectives" key theory revolves around the idea of how we are all interconnected in this world, while their rival, Caterine Vaubantries shows them that truth is derived only through pain and isolation.

The movie starts off showing people living on the surface of life; but if you only live on the surface you’re missing the point of life. The bullshit you get caught up in is meaningless and painful, but if you open your eyes and take a look you might really see what is important. There are some standout comedic vignettes sprinkled throughout this thought-provoking movie, for example, Lily Tomlin and Dustin Hoffman sneaking around, diving into garbage cans and being sprayed by a sprinkler. A non-mainstream comedy, Huckabees can be considered an acquired taste. I'll admit that a lot of people are not going to enjoy this movie, yet the quirky characters as well as the theories discussed within the movie held my interest and also made me laugh.