The Life of Chuck Review
The Life of Chuck (2024) Film Review, a movie directed by Mike Flanagan, written by Stephen King and Mike Flanagan and starring Tom Hiddleston, Jacob Tremblay, Benjamin Pajak, Cody Flanagan, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Mia Sara, Carl Lumbly, Mark Hamill, David Dastmalchian, Harvey Guillen, Matthew Lillard, Q’orianka Kilcher, Violet McGraw, The Pocket Queen, Annalise Basso, Nick Offerman and Trinity Jo-Li Bliss.
Filmmaker Mike Flanagan has crafted a film based on a complex Stephen King non-horror story with the new dramatic movie, The Life of Chuck. This new picture has earnest ambitions although it is sometimes undermined by its frustrating (at times) omniscient narration by Nick Offerman. Imagine the story of The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and picture it merging a connection with Forrest Gump and you get the idea of what The Life of Chuck is trying to do. Of course, our lead protagonist, Chuck Krantz (played as an adult man by Tom Hiddleston), doesn’t age in reverse order although his story is told in reverse order: It starts at the end and chronicles his life backwards in an intriguing way that doesn’t always work, but thanks to Flanagan’s accomplished direction, The Life of Chuck is more compelling than not over the course of its nearly two-hour running time.
As the film opens, Walt Whitman poetry is being read in an English class and a teacher named Marty Anderson (Chiwetel Ejiofor) has a complicated crisis surrounding him. Not only does the internet go out, but a fire truck passes the school in a hurry. It seems like it could well be the end of the world as we know it. Marty doesn’t necessarily feel fine as one of his colleagues points out that Pornhub, surprisingly enough, is the most noticed website down which is a clear indicator that something isn’t right in the state of the world.
In the interim, we meet Karen Gillan’s Felicia Jordan, a nurse who starts to associate with the events surrounding her and dwells on the status of her former relationship with Marty. As things start to look more and more complicated and dire in an ever-changing society, the movie convincingly presents the good and bad aspects of life with emphasis on the human condition and how it affects the key characters featured in the film.
A billboard posts a heartfelt goodbye to Chuck which characters take note of in the movie. Viewers of this film learn at one point that Chuck doesn’t have a lot of time left on the planet any way you slice it. Before he learns that news, we get treated to a great dance sequence set to drums played by a musician (the perfect The Pocket Queen) as businessman Chuck gets onto the scene and starts to boogie with a “disappointed-in-love” young woman, Janice (Annalise Basso). This pair play off each other like two finely tuned violins as they make their presence known in front of a crowd and get to have fun even if Chuck seems to struggle at times with a condition that he doesn’t seem to be aware of.
Mark Hamill plays Chuck’s wise-beyond-his-years grandfather, Albie. Hamill eats into his role here with fierce integrity and zest and he’s one of the best things in the movie even if the occasional corny narration doesn’t always do the film total justice. Hamill’s character offers musings on life and offers Chuck moments of clarity that give Chuck the inspiration to seize the day, so to speak.
Although the actors playing the younger Chucks (Jacob Tremblay, Benjamin Pajak, Cody Flanagan) get plenty of opportunities to shine here, the film is wildly uneven as it distributes its scenes of our beloved Chuck. All the actors ultimately don’t seem to get equal screen time, but the film is more concerned with throwing in everything but the kitchen sink that some of the movie’s themes come across a tad disappointingly on-screen. The failure to tell this story chronologically does eventually become an asset to the film when the movie reaches its last moments. That’s because the film ties together all its threads in a way only a master writer like Stephen King could. However, the narration does undermine the emotional impact of the film which seems odd given its function which is to genuinely move the audience with a tale of sorrow and joy.
With the revelation of an attic which is where the film concludes its story, we see that a key and what it opens has a lot of meaning to the story line. Though the movie is haphazardly odd at times, one can’t look away from the screen thanks to the enormously relatable situations which come up, including the outstanding dancing sequences. There is one phenomenal scene where our young Chuck hits the dance floor with the ever adorable, Cat McCoy (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, extraordinarily upbeat) at a school function that is certainly the standout of this picture. “Give me some lovin’” plays on the soundtrack as a nervous Chuck moves and grooves with Cat in such a way that the whole school is watching in awe. Chuck gets to shine. He’s in his glory as his confidence builds and he learns how to set himself free from an emotional standpoint when he needs to.
The Life of Chuck depends on the audience’s life experiences to truly get under the skin of each and every audience member in a particular way. This film runs the gamut of introducing so many different characters and situations that it can all feel a bit overwhelming at times. That being said, there are some fine performances. Hiddleston and our young Chucks all hit the bullseye creating the character’s emotions and developing his inner strengths and weaknesses. Ejiofor and Gillan are here for some of the movie’s key scenes, but both performers aren’t what this film will be remembered for despite the fact that both pieces of acting are right on the money. Mia Sara does stand out significantly, though, as the grandmother in a film full of quality performers.
Without a doubt, Mark Hamill is in a category of his own and makes this role here his creation and commands the audience’s attention. Though the movie offers wise observations on the meaning of life and the fact that life is a gift which can be shorter than we think, it meanders a bit, especially in the opening stages. King may be a great writer, but the attention to meaningless details which don’t advance the story becomes a little disheartening at times. It seems the narrator has all the answers when the audience should be left to find their own answers regarding the important topics this movie delves into head first.
I still was thoroughly fascinated by The Life of Chuck. In fact, the movie’s biggest strength is that it becomes more thought-provoking days after seeing it in order to let some of the musings sink into the viewers’ minds the way Flanagan intended. A good film, as defined by Roger Ebert, has three great scenes and no bad scenes. That holds true here, but those musings the narrator keeps unwinding could be a deal-breaker for those who like movies to let us think for ourselves. The narration isn’t really bad. It’s just peculiar given what the film sets out to do. The Life of Chuck almost always spells out how we should feel, but the fact that we still feel the way the movie wants us to to is a testament to the strength of the film’s powerful screenplay which is probably going to be remembered come Oscar-nomination time.
Rating: 7/10
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