I wanted to like The Life of Chuck a lot more than I did. Flannagan has emerged as one of the most impressive horror/thriller filmmakers and quite possibly one of the rarest to make a good adaptation of a Stephen King story.
That’s what makes Chuck so odd because it works on one level and it fails on another. The story, which could be considered a novella was included in the collection If It Bleeds, released in 2020. King probably didn’t anticipate Covid-19 even though he published one of the quintessential pandemic stories with his epic The Stand.
And that’s what makes the plot and tone of the story feel like kismet. To be honest, I would’ve like to have seen someone like Charlie Kaufman adapt this movie who might have made a more straightforward tone. Flanagan has been impressive in how he turned Gerald’s Game into a good thriller, despite that whole ending. Most of King’s stories don’t delve into the supernatural or focus on three-headed monsters. The stories that really hit home with his Constant Readers deal with our own personal fears and phobias.
Yet, Chuck is one of those rate stories in which King focuses on the fear of the unknown and what will happen to us.
It starts out in a world that is literally falling apart. But this isn’t a dystopian story. Time is running out but it’s not the time we think as we follow Marty Anderson (Chiwetal Ejiofer) a middle school teacher who reconnects with his ex-wife, Felicia Gordon (Karen Gillan), as volcanoes and earthquakes are causing massive damage al around the world. Telecommunication services are going off the grid with little warning. Felicia is a nurse yet most of what they’re dealing with are people who have attempted suicide.
Yet, despite this, billboards and commercials are springing up all around thanking Charles Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) for 39 years. Marty, Felicia and Marty’s neighbor, Gus Wilfong (Matthew Lillard) think it’s all a joke. Chuck looks too young to retire from a job after four decades. If something seems off, it becomes more obvious as the movie goes on.
As the world ends as Marty and Karen reconnect, Chuck is lying comatose in a hospital bed dying of a brain tumor that will end his life at any moment. Told in reverse chronological order, we see a more vibrant and lively Chuck walking through a market square on a shoreline in an undisclosed location as he is attending a banking conference.
Taylor Franck (Taylor Gordon/The Pocket Queen) a Julliard drop-out is playing a busking drummer for petty handouts when Chuck crosses her path and stops to watch her play. Also, enjoying the music is Janice Halliday (Annalise Basso), who is a 20-something who recently got a break-up text and is very upset. Yet, there’s something about Taylor’s drumming that makes Chuck and Janice to connect as he offers his hand for them to dance.
This leads to Taylor getting a lot of money in tips from people that while happily shares with Janice by Chuck refuses. Taylor leaves the market square as Chuck and Janice take a short walk and talk to each other. It’s this scene that really makes the movie worth watching, not that the dance scene is such a surprise.
But Flanagan knows Chuck and Janice are just going to make small chitchat as they part ways never seeing each other again.
A sloppy filmmaker would’ve thrown in a one-night stand between Chuck and Janice. But Chuck has a loving wife and children. And he doesn’t seem like the type who would take advantage of a vulnerable woman. He still doesn’t even understand why he started dancing. But sometimes we cross paths with people who cheer us up or we unknowingly cheer them up.
Not every moment of every day of our lives has to have some special purpose. Sometimes, you just get a chance to enjoy the moments you never anticipate but you know they’ll become the most memorable of your life.
The third section of the movie deals a lot with Chuck’s life growing up as an orphaned child following the death of his father and mother, who was pregnant. He grows up with his paternal grandparents, Albie (Mark Hamill) and Sarah (Mia Sara). Albie turns to alcohol to deal with the loss and Sarah at first seems distanced before her and Chuck discover a love of dance. They rent many classic musicals to watch as well.
In middle school, he is one of three boys on the extracurricular dance program. And even though he’s in the sixth grade, he finds himself partnered with eight-grade student Cat McCoy (Trinity Bliss), who he eventually shares his first kiss with. There’s a beauty to these moments as Chuck and Sarah form a bond. Sara gives a wonderful performance that you wish there was more of her. The young Bliss is great in her small performance as well.
But the childhood moments feel too rushed and don’t have the overall feel of the first two parts of the movie. The movie might be about Chuck Krantz, but there really is no main character. People interact with each other constantly throughout the movie as their lives intersect. And you begin to see how the first part of the movie works as a character who has a significant scene only appears as a background extra later.
Flanagan has assembled a wonderful cast even though Jacob Tremblay seems wasted as the 17-year-old Chuck. It makes you wonder if the movie would’ve worked better had Flanagan chose to end the movie with Chuck’s first kiss. I also like how Chuck creates a lie to his wife to explain a scar on his hand was from a fight with Cat’s boyfriend to make it sound cooler.
Yet, the whole subplot of Albie preventing Chuck from going into the cupola in their Victorian house because it’s haunted never does have the payoff it should have. Flanagan throws so much within less than two hours that it feels he was trying to impress King.
What do you think? Please comment.
Zane Says 