“Charles Krantz, here’s to 39 great years! Thanks, Chuck!”
Stephen King has written some of the most famous horror novels of the last 50 years, and starting with 1976’s “Carrie,” has been a prolific source for filmmakers to adapt. However, he has also written some non-horror books that were turned into some of the most famous and beloved films of all time, such as 1994’s “The Shawshank Redemption,” 1986’s “Stand by Me” and 1999’s “The Green Mile” just to name a few. Now, from the Director of 2018’s “Doctor Sleep,” Mike Flanagan, comes a story about the life of a man named Chuck told in reverse order. It is also the most recent film to win the prestigious People’s Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
Act Three: Thanks, Chuck
The world is ending. The Internet is down. Natural disasters are happening everywhere, and marriages are on the rise. We follow a middle school English teacher named Marty (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor, Star of the 2013 Best Picture winner “12 Years a Slave”) who has to deal with everything falling to pieces. He reconnects with his ex-wife, a nurse named Felicia (played by Karen Gillian, who you may recognize from her roles in “Doctor Who” and the “Guardians of the Galaxy” trilogy) when they notice something odd. The only thing that shows up on TV is a repeating advertisement congratulating someone named Chuck for having “39 great years.” It leads you to wonder, just who the hell is Chuck?
Act Two: Buskers Forever
Chuck (played by Tom Hiddleston, who you may recognize as Loki from 2012’s “The Avengers”) is an accountant who likes to dance. While short, this section of the film shows a single moment when, in Boston for a work conference, he stopped in the middle of the street and danced his heart out. The narrator (played by Nick Offerman, known for his role as Ron in the sitcom “Parks and Recreation”) humorously fills us in on Chuck’s mental processes and informs us that while he made people’s lives better that day, in just nine short months, he would be dead. Still, the resulting dance is life-affirming and beautiful to behold.
Act One: I Contain Multitudes
We now end at the beginning, where we see Chuck (now played by Benjamin Pajak) as a middle schooler who moved in with his grandparents after his parents died in an unfortunate car crash. His Grandma Sarah (played by Mia Sara, star of 1986’s “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off”) and his Grandpa Albie (played by the legendary Mark Hamill, who plays Luke Skywalker in the “Star Wars” film saga) try to pick up the pieces after the accident, and gradually return to a normal life. The only rule that Chuck has to follow is that he cannot enter the locked cupola at the top of the house…
But one of the most important scenes in the film is when his teacher, Miss Richards (played by Kate Siegel, the wife of the director Mike Flannigan), reads Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself.” Within each person, within our minds, there is an entire world where everyone we have ever met and loved and know exists, that we all contain multitudes, and that is beautiful.
This is also one of Mark Hamill’s best ever on-screen performances. I sincerely hope that this will finally be his time to earn an Oscar nomination.
Final Thoughts
While “The Life of Chuck” isn’t a perfect film, it is incredibly sweet and endearing. More than most recent movies, it is something that truly anyone can watch and fall in love with. My final rating for “The Life of Chuck” is a life-affirming 8/10.
