EVEN BEFORE IT darts through gray office mazes not far from Being John Malkovich's portal, David O. Russell's fourth film charts Charlie Kaufman territory – there's more than a hint of Adaptation to an introductory scene that places audiences squarely within the self-critical mind of disgruntled eco-activist Albert Markovski (Jason Schwartzman). A plot synopsis of I Heart Huckabees is a mug's game: ultimately, Schwartzman's character is the Matt Gonzalez, and Jude Law's white-collared climber is the Gavin Newsom, of this meta-story, which races through philosophy at a Preston Sturges pace and engineers more than one too-polite head-on collision at the intersection of politics and economics. The fact that Schwartzman's character looks an awful lot like Russell would seem to hint at where the director's sympathies lie, yet the stargazing Law – along with Mark Wahlberg and Naomi Watts, whose fractious quality finds its best identity-split vessel since Mulholland Drive – excels in this antic terrain. (Old pro Lily Tomlin fares best, though she isn't on-screen enough.) Unfortunately, I Heart Huckabees's philosophizing becomes surprisingly sluggish and shallow when nihilist Caterine Vauban (Isabelle Huppert) enters the picture: not only is Vauban no Sartre, she's no E.M. Cioran either – and both she and the movie could benefit from Cioran's loopy aphoristic talent. Russell went into this picture batting three-for-three, but I Heart Huckabees, while fitfully funny, isn't quite a splendiferous charm. See Movie Clock for show times. (Johnny Ray Huston)