Video: 4
Audio: 3
Extras: 2
I don't know if I hearted Huckabees, but I liked it an awful lot. It's an odd film (I expect nothing less from David O. Russell, the writer/director of Three Kings and Flirting with Disaster) about an environmental activist (Jason Schwartzman) who hires a pair of existential detectives to help him find meaning in a coincidence that he's experienced. With an incredibly strong cast at his disposal, Russell manages to explore weighty philosophical, political, and social subjects in a way that's both thoroughly relentless and charmingly playful.

Twentieth Century Fox has released two DVDs. The basic DVD (reviewed here) features a 2.35:1 anamorphic version of the film on one side and a 1.33:1 version on the other. Both have Dolby Digital 5.1 soundtracks and dual commentary tracks, one with Russell alone and one with Russell, Schwartzman, and costar Mark Wahlberg. The special-edition DVD adds another disc of extras.

The 2.35:1 video has solid color and detail, while the soundtrack spends most of its time in the front channels, clearly rendering dialogue and the catchy score. Schwartzman and Wahlberg aren't both present for every scene during the cast commentary; instead, they jump in and out (costar Naomi Watts also chimes in briefly), which gives the track a chaotic energy befitting the film itself. Russell's solo track is much more linear, but it's still quite interesting.

I [Heart] Huckabees isn't for everyone. If you have an off-kilter sensibility and spend an inordinate amount of time pondering the nature of the universe, you must at least rent this one.