Review: The Life of Chuck — Movies for the Rest of Us with Bill Newcott

The Life of Chuck

⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️

Rating: R

Run Time: 1 hour 50 minutes

Stars: Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Mark Hamill, Mia Sara, Jacob Tremblay

Writer/Director: Mike Flanagan (based on Stephen King’s novella)

Reviewed at the Toronto International Film Festival

 

“When an old man dies,” according to an African proverb, “a library burns to the ground.” That’s the premise behind The Life of Chuck, a time-shifting meditation on the intersection of the lives we lead, the lives we touch, and the unfathomable worlds that exist within us all.

It’s not only the most successful screen adaptation of a Stephen King work, but also among the past decade’s most challenging and poignant cinematic affirmations of our shared humanness.

It is also, hands-down, my favorite movie of the year so far.

Directed by experienced King interpreter Mike Flanagan (Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep), the film is separated into three parts — starting with Part Three. That’s a major departure from King’s novella, which relates Chuck’s tale in a conventional chronology. But the conceit never slips into gimmickry: In fact, as Chuck’s life unfolds backwards, forwards and sideways — sometimes all at once — the varied revelations take on an inevitable logic all their own in a way that recalls the saga of Billy Pilgrim in Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five.

For the film’s first section, we don’t even know who the titular Chuck really is, and for me to tell you would ruin just about everything. Suffice to say that by the time we are introduced to mild-mannered Chuck — played with winsome good humor by Tom Hiddleston — we vaguely understand that he is of immense importance to a literal universe of people.

The three chapters are linked with narration by Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation), whose lyrical, Midwestern manner has made him one of our busiest audio book readers. Here, Offerman’s gentle tones serve as a reassuring hand on our shoulder navigating a story that is, by turns, tragic and hilarious; sentimental and brutal.

In Part One we meet Marty Anderson, a low-key high school literature teacher, played with pitch-perfect understatement by Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave). Things seem normal enough in Marty’s classroom, but he, his students, and their parents are vexed by a long series of unexplained, catastrophic events: Large hunks of California are falling into the ocean; sinkholes are swallowing parts of town; a volcano has erupted in Germany; the Internet is becoming increasingly patchy and seems on the verge of going down for good.

And there’s something else: On billboards, TV, and the radio, mysterious advertisements are popping up, all of them thanking someone named Chuck Krantz for “39 Great Years!”

The deeper the world sinks into chaos, the more tributes to Chuck appear. Marty plods through life as before, seeking balance by reconnecting with his ex-wife (Karen Gillan), conversing with a local funeral director (Carl Lumbly), and trying to make sense of it all with his over-friendly neighbor Gus (Matthew Lillard).

When Part One reaches its final blackout, it’s fair to assume we won’t be seeing any of these people again, any time soon. But The Life of Chuck is rich with surprise cameos that re-introduce us to those characters — or, at least, versions of them — as we progress backwards through Chuck’s narrative.

Part Two is, improbably, primarily an extended dance sequence — an impromptu performance inspired by Chuck’s encounter with a shopping mall busker — that at once foreshadows and clarifies elements of Chuck’s character. Part Three offers glimpses of Chuck’s childhood, a mixture of unspeakable tragedy and unabashed joy, the latter courtesy of his doting grandmother (Mia Sara) and grandfather (Mark Hamill), who offers to young Chuck the most compellingly sexy argument ever on behalf of becoming an accountant. It’s Grandma who teaches Chuck to dance; a talent that will make him the sensation of a school prom and, years later, a momentary spectacle at a Midwest shopping mall.

Many of the most memorable, out-of-nowhere moments in The Life of Chuck streak into view like shooting stars, then fade just as quickly. Characters materialize in and out of their previous context. Phrases, songs, and stanzas of poetry that carry a particular meaning at one moment re-surface to contradict or amplify themselves. And then there are those two extended dance sequences, passages of such infectious joy (created by La La Land choreographer Mandy Moore) that some might be tempted to label The Life of Chuck a musical.

Such unexpected, arguably insane turns, are what The Life of Chuck is all about: Find the joy in life, tell your stories to all who will listen — and die knowing that the happiness you inspired, and those tales you shared, will live on after you.