"Have you ever transcended time and space?"

Fabulous film on navigating the meaning of life in a postmodern, poststructuralist society!

*** BRILLIANT MOVIE ***

This now beats Garden State as the latest worthwhile and very relevant film. The central premise is an examination of the age-old debate: is everything in life meaningless, or is it all part of some cosmic connection?

For one, the characters were hilarious. The enviro organizers and the anti-petroleum, anti-corporate crusader (my life, anyone?) The scene at the family dinner summed it up nicely, especially since the family is religious. The suburban, sprawling existence creates the need for saving nature's open spaces --unfortunately also perpetuating a car-centric infrastructure that necessitates detrimental foreign policies in oil-laden countries, creating regional strife and, in the movie's case, refugees for random (or meaningful) coincidences.

(And just what does happen in a meadow at sunset -- everything or nothing?)

The ending question, "How am I not myself?" -- love the double meaning! (What masks do we don to define ourselves for social purposes? Or do even the masks we don define us and become part of our identity?)

The resolution, of course, was in the same vein as Forrest's feather. ("I don’t know if we each have a destiny or if we’re all floating about accidental like on a breeze. But I think, maybe it’s both. Both happening at the same time.")

One thing "Huckabees" didn't do, though, was address the differences between micro and macro interaction -- the film just treated all events equally, as if international policy and environmental standards are on a par with smaller market-driven consumer options. Somehow, I think refugees fleeing the janjaweed carry a different burden than the one I had when buying birthday cards at Hallmark. But still, it's a great thought-provoking movie.

On a tangent (or not, depending on your philosophy!) today's UNA luncheon, I was a little taken aback by the well-dressed protestors handing out leaflets. Yeah, let's just all retreat into isolationism when it comes to diplomacy and cooperation in solving world issues, but maintain a freakin' cowboy manifest-destiny attitude when it comes to creating those world problems.

Think I might go see "Huckabees" again, if and when I get some free time after the election. There's so much to mine...