Life Of Chuck-Review
This massive picture of this man named Chuck really fits the theme of this movie more than you know. This is a story about Chuck. It’s his world and we’re all living in it. Thank you Chuck for 39 years!….
But seriously, what is this movie about and what is going on? Well, The Life of Chuck is a Stephen King novella that has now been adopted to the screen. And it’s got all kinds of interesting actors like Chiwetel Ejiofor, Tom Hiddleston, Karen Gillan, Mark Hamill, Jacob Tremblay, and Kate Siegel. It’s a fun cast. Harvey Guillen and David Dastmalchian make a brief appearance but are memoralble enough. This is a well crafted film, well shot, intriguingly paced, etc. But what is it about? Is it good?
The movie begins with ACT III. No that is not a typo. Chiwetel Ejiofor is a teacher. The internet is going out. Apparently it’s been doing this. California sloughs off into the ocean. Florida floods. Italy also floods. The Midwest catches on fire. A sinkhole opens in the middle of town. It doesn’t take long to get the vibes. This is endtimes. And it does feel like that as a viewer. It’s palpable. The cuts from horrible news reports to people lamenting the loss of their ways of life and normalcy in general. “Pornhub’s down.” David Dastmalchian’s character says. His wife has left him and the kid. She says she’ll be back but he doesn’t know. She probably won’t. “I know a lot of sites have gone down. But Pornhub? That’s just mean.” he says. He’s right. Though Pornhub is not the site it once was, it’s absence would be an unspeakable tragedy.
From there, things just get worse and society begins to break down, though more through resignation than anything else. People just start to accept that things are probably not gonna work out well this time. There’s talk of the cosmic calendar and the scope of human existence when held against time itself. It gets very philosophical and somewhat sad. The dynamic between Chiwetel Ejiofor’s character and his wife (Karen Gillan’s character) is great. It’s these two people who are more than friends, but perhaps not quite lovers navigating the end of the world in their middle age.
And the whole time this is happening, a mysterious ad is playing- “Congratulations to Charlie Krantz on 39 great years! Thank’s Chuck!” It isn’t the only thing on TV. It’ on billboards, radio ads, skywriting…it’s crazy. It’s eerie too and the characters are all like, “Who is Charlie Krantz?” No one knows.
Then we go back, nine months ago. Charlie Kranz, an accountant, is at an accounting conference. As the movie says “He had once hoped his life would be more broad than it is now. But he’s made peace with the fact it’s not.” A busk drummer sets up on a street corner. A former college dancer is walking towards that street corner. It becomes a whole thing, with Kranz in the middle of it. Not a bad act.
But then we get to the final act, which might be the meat of the whole story. A young Charlie Kranz at his grandparents house on the night his parents die on a spot of black ice. A newly orphaned Charlie Krantz living with his grandparents. A grieving grandmother who loves to dance. A brilliant, but sad and drunk grandfather who works as a book keeper. The power of dance, the power of math, the artistry of both come into focus in this act’s many monologues. It’s an unexpected direction, but it’s strangely powerful and moving.
Mark Hamill as Charlie’s grandfather is an especially engrossing character. He has a lot of liuttle quirks and moments that remind me of my own parents and grandparents. It’s a really endearing performance from Hamill, one of his best that I’ve seen recently. He really breaks out the chops here and it’s the type of artful and grounded performance I always knew Hamill had but hadn’t seen as much until now. The way his character is so quick to feel regret after feeling anger, the way he woozily clutches the bottle of liquor while drunk to pour more, the way his body language is just grieving in some parts…it’s great.
This film and story in general reminds me a lot of the writing of Gabriel Garcia Marquez, magical realism. Our settings seem normal and look contemporary. But under them, there’ s a little spark of magic and fate that drives everything along slowly but surely. There’s also a delightful and measured focus on the minutae of life. The simple pleasures, the easy joys and also the obvious sadnesses. It’s a movie about time as much as anything else, yet in that way, it’s ultimately steeped in this message of the value of the present. It’s a very smartly crafted piece of artsy and thematic filmmaking.
Overall, I though this was a pretty good movie. It’s not for everyone. It’s a story teller’s movie, one for all the people that delight in the subtle craft of sending a beautiful message. It’s not really a blockbuster, despite being Steven King. But it’s interesting in a variety of ways and more or less achieves what it’s trying to do. The performances are strong and impactful and the dialogue, while perhaps a bit passse with how self-referential it ends up being, does have some really hard hitting moments that slip right into your feels.
Life of Chuck comes out in theaters on June 6th. It was filmed in Mobile, Alabama, with one shot even going right past the author of this posts favorite local bar. It was a film that I’m glad I got to see and appreciated seeing early. As mentioned above, I wouldn’t recommend it to everyone, but if you’re a movie buff or like more literary films, this one is a good one.
