I ♡ Huckabees (2004) from Johnny Web (Uncle Scoopy; Greg Wroblewski)

Our culture treasures originality. Perhaps every culture does. We always remember the first of this or that, and that "first" person or event becomes a cherished part of our heritage. Nobody really cares about the second. George Washington is the Father of Our Country. The second President - who the hell was it again? Most people think it was Jefferson, but he was number three. If you're really into such things or still in school, you know the answer, but I'm willing to bet that 90% of Americans can't name the second President. As for the second person to make a solo flight across the Atlantic ... who the hell cares? History only cares about the first. We believe that originality has intrinsic value over and above the difficulty or merit of the task itself. It is originality that we often equate with the magical word "genius."

Which brings us to I ♡ Huckabees, an offbeat comedy which isn't very funny or even very interesting to most people, but is dazzlingly original. In fact, it is so original that it could well be the raving of an insane person, and provides some clear evidence of truth in the old saw about the similarity of genius and insanity. Which is it? Beats me. Maybe some of both.

It's about Albert Markovski, an environmental activist whose life is going poorly. One of his recent projects resulted in the destruction of an entire micro-biosphere except for one rock, upon which he sits to meditate and mutter. His entire environmental group is in danger of being co-opted by a slick, charming corporate huckster whom Albert originally asked for help. At the moment we join his thoughts, Albert is obsessed with the coincidence of having seen the same very tall African man three times in three separate places. Since he can't determine whether the coincidence has any significance or meaning, he does what I think any of us would do ...

... he enlists the services of an existential detective agency.

And that was some of the more normal activity going on in this film!

It is not entirely impossible to make something entertaining out of material like this.

• Woody Allen forged entertainment out of philosophy and the big questions in Love and Death and in several of his short stories. He scored by going for the belly laughs, by finding absurd humor in the absurdity of the universe. Huckabees does not do this. In fact, rather than making semi-respectful fun of philosophy, Huckabees takes the philosophy seriously and makes fun of those who deprecate it! (Yeah, plenty of laughs there. Those philosophers were some zany motherfuckers, as you know if you've seen Aristotle's definition of comedy. Funny, funny guy. Always cracked up Plato with the Groucho glasses.)

• Michael O'Donoghue made philosophy funny by finding humor in the process of intellectual engagement. In fact, the rabid genius known as Mr. Mike once started a National Lampoon piece with a very similar premise to that of I ♡ Huckabees. Anybody but me remember Critique of Pure Murder? The philosopher detective Jean-Paul Sauvage was a hard-boiled, hard-thinkin' dick who wasn't afraid to ask all of the tough metaphysical questions, and finally managed to unmask a false intellectual as the real murderer, because the pretender owned a copy of Will and Ariel Durant's History of Philosophy! Huckabees does not take this kind of approach either. The detectives in this film actually work like psychologists, not like detectives. Their only detecting is to find the deceptions posed by the conscious mind, and ultimately to strip them away.

What does Huckabees do to engage an audience, exactly? Frankly, I don't know. There were a few interesting ideas, but if there was any point, I missed it. Does it need a point? Well, no but it needs something. Writer/director David O Russell (Three Kings) is a talented guy and a fresh thinker, but I found almost no laughs in this film, no insights at all, and made no emotional connection to it at any time through any character. It seemed like a lot of babbling. All the characters speak very quickly, often repetitively, sometimes simultaneously, and usually in a very clipped manner, as if Jack Webb were suddenly to be transported back into the 30s to find himself competing for a word edgewise among Carole Lombard, Moe Howard, and Jimmy Cagney. (Dustin Hoffman even went for Moe Howard's hairstyle.)

The British critics generally despised this movie. American reviews were mixed, and Ebert panned it, but there were those who absolutely loved it, and there is now an incredibly comprehensive special edition DVD which will be treasured by that group. Why did those people like it so much? Well, the damned thing is odd, and tries to deal with weighty issues. There will always be people who like it for those reasons alone. And it is certainly original, and just about everyone treasures originality.

But after watchin' this movie, I'm thinkin' that originality may be overrated.