The Life of Chuck
Marty Anderson (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is having a hard time getting his high school students to focus on Walt Whitman's 'Song of Myself' when they keep getting news updates about major chunks of California falling into the ocean. He tries to lift the spirits of his ex, Felicia Gordon (Karen Gillan, "Guardians of the Galaxy's" Nebula), a nurse facing extreme conditions as doctors and patients simply leave her hospital. And while the entire world seems to be in a state of collapse, no one can figure out why the only thing left on TV and conspicuous billboards are ads congratulating some guy who looks like an accountant on his '39 years' in "The Life of Chuck."
Laura's Review: B+
Writer/director/editor Mike Flanagan took a so-so Stephen King novel, "The Shining" sequel "Dr. Sleep," and turned it into a better movie. Now, adapting the Stephen King novella, he hasn't ironed out all the wrinkles, but he has made a moving contemplation on the meaning of life, one which owes a lot to a line in a Whitman poem and the idea that you live as long as you are remembered. We'll gradually find out who Chuck is and why he is important to this apocalyptic world as the film backtracks from its opening Act Three to Act One, beginning with flickers of a man in a hospital bed as that first third act segues into the second with a nod to "The Truman Show" and a cut reminiscent of 'The Sopranos' finale.
That first act, bolstered by Ejiofor's incredibly humane performance, stresses the importance of connection, seen as Marty trades theories and fears with neighbor Gus (Matthew Lillard, "SLC Punk!," TV's 'Good Girls'); converses with a stranger, funeral director Sam Yarborough (Carl Lumbley, "Captain America: Brave New World"); and advises a young girl roller skating to hurry home when all the power fails as he makes his way on foot to Felicia's house, his and her tie to each other recognized as their most important as the world ends.
Act Two, 'Buskers Forever,' features what is sure to be the film's most lauded scene in which Chuck Krantz (Tom Hiddleston), away at a banking conference, will be stopped short in a town plaza where busking drummer Taylor Franck (The Pocket Queen) is performing. His inner spirit moved, he puts down his briefcase and begins to move, his dancing so riveting he draws a crowd which includes Janice Halliday (Annalise Basso of Flanagan's "Oculus" and "Ouija: Origin of Evil"), a young woman distraught over having just been dumped by her boyfriend via text. He'll extend his hand and pull Janice in for what turns out to be a spontaneous and rousing celebration of being alive. But our narrator, Nick Offerman, has told us something Chuck, who's been suffering from headaches, does not yet know - he has only nine months to live.
In Act One, 'I Contain Multitudes,' we will learn what formed Chuck (Cody Flanagan), who was raised by his grandparents Albie (Mark Hamill, looking like "Pinocchio's" Geppetto) and Sarah (Mia Sara) after losing his parents in a car accident at the age of seven. Elementary aged Chuck (Benjamin Pajak) will be given joy by his grandmother, who astonishes him by dancing to rock classics as she cooks (we'll have seen Hiddleston raise his hand with the same gesture Sarah made with her wooden cooking spoon), inspiring a life long love of dance, one which is further encouraged by gym teacher Miss Rohrbacher (Samantha Sloyan, TV's 'The Fall of the House of Usher,' 'The Pitt'), whose Twirlers and Spinners club will introduce him to the stunning Cat McCoy (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), leading to a younger iteration of that dance scene. But Abbie, haunted by visions of death he's had in the Victorian home's forbidden-to-Chuck locked cupola, isn't as upbeat and amidst a philosophical reverie on the all-encompassing importance of math, tells the boy 'the world loves dancers, it truly does, but it needs accountants.' Chuck's grandmother attributes Abbie's fears to too much alcohol, instead of realizing it is the other way around, and Abbie's penultimate vision accurately predicts terrible grief for he and the boy. Revisiting the home after Abbie's death five years later, Chuck, now played by "Room's" Jacob Trembley, will unlock that cupola and have a vision of his own.
Flanagan's made the film a family affair, not only featuring his son as the youngest Chuck, but his wife (and "Hush" star) Kate Siegel who explains the concept behind that Whitman poem to Chuck's second youngest iteration. As we go back earlier and earlier into Chuck's life, we will begin to notice people and places we've seen before, the wallpaper in Marty's ranch house the same as in the Krantz's Victorian, Marty and Felicia in the crowd watching young Chuck dance with the older Cat at the school dance. It will be Sam Yarborough who Chuck will see about Abbie's funeral arrangements, but not everyone appears to have been given equal weight, most notably Chuck's wife. This is a film that is sure to reveal more and more upon repeated viewings, but I'm not convinced everything quite adds up and there are little hiccups like the fact that Janice just happens to be wearing dancing shoes, but these are quibbles given the film's bracing, uplifting spirit.
Standouts in the large ensemble include Ejiofor, Pajak and Sara (it's quite a shock to see Ferris Bueller's girlfriend playing a grandmother), Hiddleston's contribution largely limited to his engaging smile and dance moves. The film also features "The New World's" Q'orianka Kilcher as Chuck's briefly glimpsed wife, "A Nightmare on Elm Street's" Heather Langenkamp as a neighbor of the Krantzes and David Dastmalchian and Harvey Guillen as distracted attendees of Marty's parent-teacher meetings.
The film's discussion of the Cosmic Calendar reminds us that we may be only a tiny speck in the Universe, yet Whiteman's 'I am large, I contain multitudes' memorializes the importance of every life on earth, as does "The Life of Chuck."
Neon releases "The Life of Chuck" in select theaters on 6/6/25, wide on 6/13/25.
