Albert Markovski (Schwartzman), head of the Open Spaces Coalition, has been experiencing an alarming series of coincidences the meaning of which escapes him. With the help of two Existential Detectives, Bernard and Vivian Jaffe (Hoffman and Tomlin), Albert examines his life, his relationships, and his conflict with Brad Stand (Law), an executive climbing the corporate ladder at Huckabees, a popular chain of retail superstores. When Brad also hires the detectives, they dig deep into his seemingly perfect life and his relationship with his spokesmodel girlfriend, the voice of Huckabees, Dawn Campbell (Watts). Albert pairs up with rebel firefighter Tommy Corn (Wahlberg) to take matters into their own hands under the guidance of the Jaffes' nemesis, the French radical Caterine Vauban (Huppert). [TRAILER]

STEVEN SNYDER'S REVIEW

What in the world is going on with “I Heart Huckabees?” Please, someone e-mail me and let me know. Here is a wild ride of a film - part crazy head trip, part manic comedy, part confusing mess.

It's hard to distill what this movie really is, much less what I think. Yet here I sit, trying desperately to say something coherent about this hyperactive and bewildering piece of work.

The poster, with equal parts pretentiousness and intrigue, says it's an “existential comedy.” Okay, great, although that doesn’t really get us anywhere.

The movie has a few key players, though none really emerge as primary characters. There's Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman), an easygoing, mild-mannered environmental activist. There's Tommy (Mark Wahlberg), who is the loud, boorish firefighter obsessed with fuel conservation, taking on anyone and everyone who drives a car.

There's Brad Stand (Jude Law), the polished, pristine corporate executive at Huckabees who would sell his own mother to get ahead. And his girlfriend, the voice and face of Huckabees, Dawn Campbell, played by the always-different and interesting Naomi Watts from “21 Grams.”

Oh, and I must not forget the two existential detectives, played by Dustin Hoffman and Lili Tomlin, and a nihilist, played by Isabelle Huppert.

This movie, for the most part, does not make cohesive sense and it's not supposed to. Instead, “Huckabees” is an absurd comedy with a philosophical backbone that then finds wackier and wackier ways of visualizing its ideas about existence and fate.

Near film's end, all of these characters have become symbols in the intellectual debate. Wahlberg is nihilism personified, convinced that life is horrible and fate is irrelevant and arbitrary. Law is the blissful common man, unaware that fate is working in the background, simply content with the here, now, tangible and ordinary.

And Schwartzman represents those of us who question the purpose behind this silly thing called life.

He starts the film as a man confused about a series of coincidences he experiences - seeing the same unknown man in random places at random times. He wonders if this might have something to do with fate or destiny and this leads him to the existential detectives, who try to help him see that the here and now is irrelevant, and what really matters is how everything is forever connected. It is this connection, they say, that makes everything matter.

When he becomes frustrated with this complex theory, Schwartzman finds the nihilist who convinces him that nothing matters and why care - a much easier, but a far more depressing outlook.

Director and co-writer David Russell continues to find increasingly bizarre ways to portray this existential debate. He is most successful with an elevator sequence in which a journey between floors reflects the randomness and the spontaneity of life, where we laugh along with its very meaning. But he is less successful in moments such as when Schwartzman has kinky sex with his nihilist instructor, where we laugh at the randomness of a moment that has really lost all meaning.

However, I must admit that I was always intrigued while watching “I Heart Huckabees.” With a film this brazen and bold, how could you possibly not be interested? But in its attempt to be edgy, it consistently keeps the viewer at arm’s length, always removed from these characters or their insights.

Filtering out the story’s noise, I am able to come to some sense of closure. Ultimately, I prefer to remember “Huckabees” for its sly intellectual humor and its many philosophical hiccups.

But I’m more than content skimming over the rest.

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