David O'Russell. photo, Jilly Wendell

I Heart Huckabees (Fox Searchlight, 2004), the fourth film from writer and director David O Russell, is his most personal, whereon he outs himself politically and spiritually. Convinced that a series of coincidences hold some secret to life's largest riddles, the main character, Albert Markovski seeks the help of existential detectives. Markovski, an environmental activist, is straight out of a chapter from Russell's twenties. "I have been, in college, an organizer in parking lots talking to people and been mocked for it," said Russell.

The main character is not the only personal touch Russell put in the movie. The concept of existential detectives came to Russell as a dream. "[In the dream] I was followed by a woman for metaphysical reasons, not criminal reasons. I liked the idea of someone following you to find out who you are." Playing the existential detectives are Dustin Hoffman and Lily Tomlin.

Russell wrote the role of Albert Markovski for Jason Schwartman. The director had seen his lead performance in Rushmore (Touchstone, 1998) and decided to write a script for Schwartzman. "I wrote one movie for him, then decided it wasn't ready. Then I wrote this script and [realized] Markovski was meant for him."

Schwartzman, after reading the script, was drawn to the character of Markovski and accepted the role. "I think we all know someone like Albert," said Schwartzman, who added, "What I liked most about him is that this guy really wants to know what's going on, not just with himself, but with the universe." Schwartzman, like the character he plays, had a coincidence of his own: running into Dustin Hoffman. "On the night David told me who I would be working with [in the movie], I ran into Dustin in a revolving door. We were going around and around," he recalled.

Jason Schwartzman. photo, Staci Layne Wilson

In addition to the existential detectives, the character portrayed by the French actress Isabelle Huppert, Caterine Vauban, is a nihilist and the philosophical enemy of the existential detectives. She eventually lures Markovski away from the existential detectives to accept her philosophy. Russell said, "Caterine sees life as an oscillation between the cruel and absurd theater of human drama and suffering, and, on the other hand, the pace attained from just being."

The scene that embodies this oscillation is what the cast and crew refer to as the "mud scene." Schwartzman had to dunk Huppert's face in the mud several times before dumping her over a log for a comical sex scene. Schwartzman recalled, "In the script, it was a very detailed scene with long descriptions. It was the last shot of the day. David [Russell] told us there would be 'sex before the sun went down'." With time running out and only twenty minutes of daylight left, Huppert said she would not do the scene because she considered it vulgar. After convincing Huppert that the scene was meant to be humorous, the scene was done in one take.

Schwartzman, instructed by Russell "to make love to the earth," crawled and slithered on the ground and rubbed clumps of mud over himself and Huppert, finally submerging Huppert's face repeatedly into a pool of mud.

Other key characters in the film are played by Jude Law and Naomi Watts. Law portrays Brad Stand, a corporate junior executive at Huckabees, the retail chain store Markovitz is trying to convince to join his environmentalist cause. NaomiWatts' character, Dawn, is the Barbie-doll spokesmodel for Huckabees. Russell, explaining how both actors came on board, said, "Neither, Naomi, nor, Jude, had done a comedy before and they wanted to." Both characters experience transformations after they, too, on a lark, hire the existential detectives whose round-the-clock probings undermine their arrogant confidence and Brad's covert plan to thwart the environmentalist cause.

For Russell, Watts was the perfect person to deconstruct the golden American ideal. "She is a very smart, amazingly talented blonde who could play a dumb blonde with enough honest sincerity and commitment that we believe she might suddenly transform herself." Watts' vacuous character goes through the most extreme transformation of all the characters, physically and philosophically.

Although I Heart Huckabees asks a number of Big Questions, Russell explained that he is not finished exploring the answers. "I believe there is plenty of room in motion pictures to grapple with reality and consciousness. There are questions we should be asking constantly and preeminently as human beings…There's so much to dig into, I feel I could make 20 films about the subject, or maybe even 100 films. This is just one."

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