I Heart Huckabees

ost-modernism is especially maddening when it’s forced. Director David O. Russell’s too-cute dud is a good example. An anxious LA environmental activist named Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman) enlists help from “existential detectives” Bernard (Dustin Hoffman) and Vivian (Lily Tomlin) to get to the bottom of his mixed feelings about working with ruthless outlet chain Huckabees. His “case” knocks up against Huckabees corporate honcho Brad Stand (a miscast Jude Law), his girlfriend Dawn Campbell (pretty-faced Naomi Watts), and Tommy Corn (Mark Wahlberg), a pro-Third World, anti-oil firefighter. This hippy farce, billed as “new age comedy,” is really just a series of skits for lifeless L.A. caricatures. It’s most grievous offense is pretending to be about everything when it’s about nothing.