THE LIFE OF CHUCK:
MIKE FLANAGAN’S BRILLIANT SCI-FI ODYSSEY!
By Nico Beland
Movie Review: **** out of 4
NEON
Tom Hiddleston in The Life of Chuck
Tom Hiddleston (Marvel Cinematic Universe, Midnight in Paris, Crimson Peak) goes from God of Mischief to dancing accountant in The Life of Chuck, the new film from director Mike Flanagan (Oculus, Ouija: Origin of Evil, Doctor Sleep) based on a short story by Stephen King. I was looking forward to this movie and not just because I met a few cast members plus Flanagan himself at various conventions, that was honestly an extra reason to go see it.
I think Mike Flanagan is a very exciting director in both film and television though he’s usually known for horror so, this definitely seemed outside his comfort zone. It reminded me a lot of when Wes Craven of Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream fame directed Music of the Heart, a radically different movie from what he was best known for.
Well, Mike Flanagan once again continues to amaze me because The Life of Chuck is absolutely fantastic and a visually and emotionally transfixing journey through time. It’s a funny, moving, and above all, entertaining departure from Mike Flanagan’s usual fare with a dancing Tom Hiddleston as an added bonus.
The film is told in reverse chronology (Like Christopher Nolan’s Memento) and split into three parts that chronicle the life of accountant, Charles “Chuck” Krantz (Hiddleston) from his death coinciding with the end of the world to his childhood. The movie shows where Chuck got his passion for dancing via his grandmother’s love for music and even joined his school’s dance club, his grandfather, Albie Krantz (Mark Hamill-Star Wars franchise, Batman: The Animated Series, The Wild Robot) encouraging him to pursue an interest in math and statistics and become an accountant, and the one time where adult Chuck encounters a young drummer on the street resulting in one of the most magical (sort of) musical numbers since La La Land.
The film also stars Jacob Tremblay (Room, Good Boys, Luca) as Young Chuck, Chiwetel Ejiofor (12 Years a Slave, The Martian, Doctor Strange 1 and 2) as Marty Anderson, Karen Gillan (Oculus, Marvel Cinematic Universe, Jumanji 2 and 3) as Felicia Gordon, Mia Sara (Legend, Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Timecop) as Chuck’s grandmother Sarah Krantz, Annalise Basso (Bedtime Stories, The Red Road, Snowpiercer) as Janice Halliday, Kate Siegel (Gerald’s Game, The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass; who is also Mike Flanagan’s wife) as Miss Richards, Trinity Bliss (The Loud House franchise, Avatar: The Way of Water) as Cat McCoy, Matthew Lillard (Scream, Scooby-Doo 1 and 2, Five Nights at Freddy’s) as Gus Wilfong, and Nick Offerman (Parks and Recreation, Dumb Money, Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning) as The Narrator.
Overall, The Life of Chuck is easily Mike Flanagan’s most unique and emotional film to date with a lot of heart and one of Stephen King’s more sentimental and optimistic stories at the center of it that’s in the spirit of Stand By Me rather than The Shining. Granted, there are times where Flanagan’s horror roots do shine in this film such a genuinely haunting sequence early on involving images of Tom Hiddleston’s Chuck lighting up on every house’s window in the neighborhood as Chiwetel Ejiofor races to Karen Gillan as the world comes to an end and another during Chuck’s childhood with a creepy, old door in his home that’s locked up and is forbidden to open, but they’re nowhere near as prevalent as in his previous work.
I actually found the first and third parts (Acts 3 and 1) to be the most captivating for completely different reasons with the Act 3 revolving around Chiwetel Ejiofor and Karen Gillan living in a collapsing world with Chuck’s face plastered everywhere in an almost ghost-like manner often accompanied by the text “Thanks, Chuck!”. Despite the Act lasting for only a short amount of time, I thought it was emotionally powerful with Ejiofor, Gillan, and Lillard taking full advantage of their screen-time.
The last act (Act 1) has the most meat to the story as it focuses on Chuck’s childhood, his relationship with his grandparents, and where he develops his passion for dancing. It goes back and forth between being wholesome and heavy where you see events from his childhood, both good and bad that play into what kind of person he will become and how they’ll affect the future.
The middle act is a simple yet effective bit where adult Chuck comes across a young drummer in the street who dances for her while she plays her drum in what’s essentially a big musical number… and a very entertaining and energetic one at that. It isn’t a super dialogue-heavy segment with much of the emotions coming from the characters’ movements and actions in a sequence that really makes the film come alive that I can best describe as La La Land with the energy of RRR, very fun moment.
All the performances are strong with Hiddleston obviously being the biggest name attached to it and he is great here though ironically not the big focus as much of it is spent with Chuck as a child. All three actors playing Young Chuck are very believable and compelling in their own rights, one of them is even Mike Flanagan’s son.
Mark Hamill is a standout and gives a very sentimental and heartbreaking performance as Chuck’s grandfather who’s grieving over the deaths of Chuck’s parents and has turned to alcohol. He has some genuinely heartfelt moments with Chuck as he teaches him the importance of math and statistics in life and Hamill portrays him beautifully here.
The Life of Chuck is the kind of film I strongly urge people to go see and support in theaters, it’s a beautiful and heartwarming story about celebrating life with charming and endearing performances, hard-hitting drama, and truly wonderful sequences brought to the screen by Mike Flanagan. I am hoping Flanagan’s miniseries adaptation of Stephen King’s Carrie will follow in his successful directing streak especially after something as truly magnificent as this. “Thanks, Chuck… and Thanks, Mike!”
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