I got an email today from my brother Derek, an astrophysicist at CalTech, and his wife Erica, an assistant professor of Chinese History and Asian Studies at USC. Apparently, they've stumbled across a movie called "I (Heart) Huckabees" that is a fascinating film adaptation of the book "Infinite Life." I served as freelance editor for this book on Tibetan Buddhism by Robert Thurman, PhD, a professor of Buddhism at Columbia University, former monk, and Uma's dad.
Check out Derek's excellent analysis of the film and its similarities to "Infinite Life." Perhaps it'll inspire you to read the book! ;-)
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Erica and I went to see "I (Heart) Huckabess" last night. This is the new film by director David O. Russell ("Flirting with Disaster"; "Three Kings") and it stars Jude Law, Naomi Watts, Dustin Hoffman, Lily Tomlin, Jason Schwartzman (star of "Rushmore"), Isabelle Huppert, and Mark Wahlberg. The movie is in limited release but expanding steadily around the US.
We went because although the movie was receiving mixed notices, it seemed like the critics who didn't like it mainly didn't like it because they weren't getting it, and we were pretty sure that we would. The story is about a local environmental activist (Schwartzman) who becomes concerned about the coincidences haunting his life, and frustrated by the machinations of the Director of Public Relations for the superstore-chain Huckabees (Law, who is dating the chain's persona and model, Watts), with whom he has been warring over the preservation of a local marsh and woodlands. He hires a husband-and-wife team (Hoffman and Tomlin) as his "existential detectives" and they begin poking and prodding into his life, trying to help him in his quest for the eternal truths of life and the universe -- and also figure out why he keeps running into this one particular local Sudanese refugee.
We had a great time with this movie, the slapstick comedy as well as the off-hand irreverant philosophical dialogues. As you can tell from the cast, the acting (almost all of it) is terrific. And of course the movie provides much food for thought and conversation.
But the most amazing thing about the movie is this: It is just about the most direct possible adaptation of Robert Thurman's book "Infinite Life" that we could imagine putting on-screen! I speak of this in the same sense that Tina Fey's "Mean Girls" is a screen adaptation of Rosalind Wiseman's "Queen Bees and Wannabes", which was an anthropological study of girls in junior-high and high school. That is to say, obviously all of the narrative in the movie is novel to the material. But nonetheless, in its content, emphases, and even overall narrative arc, the book is adopted wholesale.
In fact, Robert Thurman is thanked in the movie's acknowledgments, but does not get an "adaptation" credit the way Wiseman did for "Mean Girls". As I see it, this comes pretty close to giving Thurman grounds for a lawsuit...
The meditation sequences that the Hoffman character describes are directly from the book. The Mark Wahlberg character's role in the story is to be effectively paralyzed by his realization of all the evil in the world -- a danger warned about, explicitly, in the book. During a joint meditation of Schwartzman & Wahlberg's they both achieve a state of non-conciousness, feeling themselves to be no different than the rock they are sitting on, or "a dish of moss" -- a state described in the book. Most dramatically, Hoffman gives a dramatic speech at one point about how Schwartzman and Law have been, throughout eternity, each others' wives, lovers, parents and children as well as bitter rivals and enemies -- almost word for word like the book.
I won't give you any more spoilers but even that does not exhaust the similitudes. Basically, what I have come to realize after a day of thought about this movie is that it represents David O. Russell's enthusiastic full-bodied response to his exposure to basic Buddhist tenets, as laid out in "Infinite Life." There is really no other way to look at it.
This is a continuation of the "I (heart) Huckabees" thread: I saw David O. Russell (director and co-writer) being interviewed (sort of) by F.X. Feeney as part of the Writers on Writing series, which is under the auspices of the Writers Guild here in Los Angeles. (I say "sort of" because Russell so dominated the flow of the conversation.)
Russell indeed acknowledged that he was very influenced by Robert Thurman's classes when he was at, I believe, Amherst. Going back to the early 90's, he had the idea to write what would become this movie, or rather he had thematic ideas he wanted to turn into a comic screenplay. He couldn't make the idea work then. He returned to it twice more before he came up with the means that is "...Huckabees" Note, he didn't mean the number of drafts he wrote of
"...Huckabees", but rather the general working premise. He actually never stated how many drafts it took, but he was quite adamant that it was hard work and that the script is tightly structured rather than being loose and messy. He literally takes years to write and make a picture. In 15 years, his oeuvre is disparate but paradoxically similar 4 films, and a short documentary.
When someone asked about the meaning of the movie. He gave a very simple answer that featured the word "exhileration".
He also said that as preparation for the actors, he gave them Thurman's tapes, and that Dustin Hoffman's character is based on Thurman.
Another fun fact: Russell and his writing partner wrote part of the script in the waiting room of Russell's chiropractor's office. They would spend all day there, ordering in lunch.
A couple of near quotes: "There's no such thing as nothing. Things are infinitely re-cycling." "You'd crash your car and shit in your pants if you didn't have concepts."
From a visual point of view, he noted that he wanted some stability in the movie for viewers, so he limited the color palate. There are no reds and greens in the movie except for 2 specific instances.
Posted by: Julius Galacki | October 28, 2004 at 12:52 AM
Well, the Derica was right on target! Here is the reply I got today from Bob Thurman himself, when I forwarded him Derek's email from above:
-MeiMei
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Dear MeiMei,
How fun your brother Derek's discovery. Actually the story is a bit more complex - as the passages he thinks are from the book are just my general teaching type ideas. David Russell is an old student of mine from years ago. We lately have been planning a film together, the next one he will work on after Huckabees - I'm so pleased Derek liked it, some people don't.
He got so into my tapes called The JEWEL TREE OF TIBET (SOUNDS TRUE, published) that he had everyone in the cast listen to them over and over. Then he got me involved with them all. Though he wrote Huckabees before the Infinite Life book came out, he certainly was influenced by me. Our next film will be even more into the reincarnation theme of Infinite Life.
Derek might be amused to see the half hour 'infomercial'' David made with me and Dustin [Hoffman] and Lily [Tomlin] and the chairman of the UCLA physics department about the vision of reality in Huckabees. It may be visible on the Huckabees website, or I'm not sure where.
Glad all goes well.
Best
Bob
Posted by: Robert Thurman | October 24, 2004 at 08:12 PM