DVD: I ♥ Huckabees

Director David O. Russell describes I ♥ Huckabees as an attempt to introduce audiences to the principles of Eastern Religion, particularly Buddhism, without framing these principles in explicitly religious terms. The film seems to target a young progressive audience that is aware that something is very wrong with the state of the world but is feeling alienated and somewhat hopeless. You know, people like me, and like you and like most of our friends have been feeling since November 2. That audience is personified in Albert (Jason Schwartzman), a frustrated environmental activist, who recruits a pair of existential detectives (Dustin Hoffman & Lily Tomlin) to unravel his personal mysteries.

Huckabees teaches so artfully and efficiently that we barely notice that we're learning. Complex Buddhist concepts seem like common sense; Hoffman's character (based on Buddhist teacher Robert Thurman) demonstrates, with the help of a blanket, in 30 seconds, the concept of interbeing-everything is everything else. We learn of interconnectedness: between people, between events, between the psychological and the interpersonal, and the political. We learn of impermanence as we watch Albert and his sleazy corporate arch-nemesis Brad (Jude Law) experience devastating losses. But along with Albert, we learn how to be compassionate toward Brad; we learn to see that even our "enemies" are suffering. It is this insight that allows Albert (and us) to let go of our attachment to anger and move on.

The movie is not a thinly disguised religious tract promoting Buddhism as an easy ticket to Happytown. It is honest about the temptation and dangers posed by nihilism dressed up in a zen disguise. This is important because the whole "fuck as many people and do as many drugs as I can and ignore the consequences because I am beyond good and evil" mentality has haunted American Buddhism since Kerouac and Ginsberg.

The portrayal of a family of a typical American evangelical Christians needs a little work. Russell depicts the family as warm-hearted but narrow-minded and oblivious to their complicity in world problems. Sadly, that sounds about right. But he gets the theology behind their arrogance wrong when he has the clueless daughter state that “Jesus is never mad at us if we live with him in our hearts.” Actually, very few evangelical christians would say that. Russell seems to be hypothesizing that their confidence in their salvation-by-grace is responsible for their self-righteousness and lack of attention to social justice, but in fact personal piety and the struggle against sin remains a focus even for those who consider themselves "saved". A more nuanced diagnosis would find that the real issue is the shift in emphasis from social holiness to private personal holiness since the 19th century, or what Jim Wallis calls the "great heresy of 20th century American Evangelicalism."

Not enough films have something important and substantive to say beyond an interesting story or a character study. Huckabees doesn't provide empty escapism or deny how screwed up the world is, but still leaves you feeling hopeful and empowered to keep fighitng the good fight. And it's all delivered with sincerity and humor, like a little smiling buddha in movie form. I ♥ this movie.

Please read this cool interview with David O. Russell, written by Jeffery Overstreet for Christianity Today. It features a guest appearance by devout catholic/sexy underwear model Mark Walhberg, who says of the film, rather confusingly, but sincerely: "It's all about Jesus"