The Life of Chuck: A Review

THE LIFE OF CHUCK

You watch a film, you know what it wants to say, and you can even respect what it wants to say and where it is going. However, one decision, just one, has you thinking that it could have and should have been better. Such is the case with The Life of Chuck, a film that pushes one into seeing the importance of living your life, but which stumbles just enough to not quite get a recommendation from me. 

Told in reverse order, The Life of Chuck is divided into three chapters. Chapter Three: Thanks, Chuck shows a world that is falling apart. California has sunk into the ocean. There are wars and chaos all around. The internet and automobiles are starting to fail. Schoolteacher Marty Anderson (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is doing the best that he can to keep living. He and others still living in this decaying universe, including his ex-wife, nurse Felicia (Karen Gillan) see one billboard and ad continuously pop up. It is of a nondescript, slightly smug looking fellow with a coffee cup and the message, "Charles Krantz. 39 Great Years! Thanks, Chuck!". 

Who is this Chuck, and why is he as one character called him, "the Oz of the Apocalypse"? As the world slowly comes to an end, we see Chuck in bed, dying, as his wife and son bid him a tearful farewell with, "39 great years! Thanks, Chuck!". The stars around a reunited Marty and Felicia start dying away, and the world goes dark.

Act Two: Buskers Forever has us informed by our Narrator (Nick Offerman), who did pop up in Act Three, about Charles "Chuck" Krantz (Tom Hiddleston). He is a 39-year-old accountant who has nine months left to live, though he does not know it. In Boston for a conference, he comes up Taylor Frank (The Pocket Queen), a drummer who makes a living off busking (playing music in public for donations). Chuck pauses at Taylor's drum set, begins to listen, and then begins to bust the moves. He even manages to get Janice (Annalise Basso), who was just dumped by her boyfriend, to join her in cutting a little rug to the delight of onlookers. Despite her offer to go on the road, Chuck and Janice turn down Taylor's invitation. Chuck for his part does not know why he opted to dance like no one is watching (even though everyone was).

Act One: I Contain Multitudes has the Narrator once again filling us in on the early life of Charles "Chuck" Krantz. He lost his parents and unborn sister in a car accident. Raised by his grandparents Sara (Mia Sara) and Albie (Mark Hamill), the grieving family soon starts emerging from their grief. Sara and Chuck soon dance together and watch musicals ranging from Singin' in the Rain to Cabaret on VHS. Albie, an accountant, loves Chuck but also increases his alcohol intake and forbids Chuck from going into the Victorian era cupola in their home. Chuck joins the Spinners and Twirlers dance class at school. He is a lord of the dance, even teaching everyone else the moonwalk. He endures more loss but also great joy. After both his grandparents pass on, he finally sees what is in the cupola and decides he will live out his life. Quoting from Walt Whitman's Song of Myself, he tells himself, "I am wonderful. I deserve to be wonderful. I contain multitudes". 

Courtesy of NEON

I think that writer/director Mike Flanagan's adaptation of Stephen King's short story has a good message and a good heart. The idea of how every life is important, living your life to the fullest, and how even something as apparently simple as accounting can be joyful is a most positive one. There is something good to be said about how such a film with a life-affirming message like The Life of Chuck is almost needed now. As such, why then am I giving it a mildly negative score?  

Simply put: Nick Offerman. As the Narrator, he does not appear on-screen. I recognized his voice pretty quickly, which sad to say was almost distracting from the start. What made it fall for me was in how much of it there was. Acts Two and One were pretty narration dominant. That in itself was difficult, as the narration became more and more distracting as it grew and grew. The worst part of the narration was not, however, the excessive amount of it.

Rather, it is the tone that Flanagan directed Offerman to take. At times, it was almost sarcastic in detailing Chuck's life. Voiceover can be tricky. It can be used to great effect such as in Sunset Boulevard and the original Blade Runner release. More often than not, however, voiceover narration can be a pretty lazy way of filling in plot and character development. In The Life of Chuck, we get insights into the characters through the voiceover when it could have easily come through their own actions and words. It does not help that The Narrator says something, and a character repeats it verbatim. Such things make it play like a joke. I think that The Life of Chuck is not meant to be a joke, or at least a comedy. 

Take for example when Sara, Chuck's beloved Bubbe, reveals that she is emerging from her grief. I could go with Offerman's voiceover that she is starting to cook when she had previously ordered food. However, we could have easily seen her grief in how she started dancing joyfully to Dance Hall Days on the radio and bringing in her grandson as her partner. I think The Life of Chuck began relying too much on the voiceover to where, at least for me, it grew maddening. That Act Three was not as voiceover heavy as Acts Two and One makes one wonder why Flanagan opted to be sparing in the beginning only to be more indulgent as the film went on.

Courtesy of NEON

I think that the structure of The Life of Chuck, starting with the end and moving back, was not a bad idea. It perhaps might be a little deceptive in how in Act Three, we see almost no connection between the world slowly dying and this ubiquitously strange, smiling figure. I say "a little" because in a way, Chuck is the god of this universe. The various figures that populate this apocalyptic world do appear in Chuck's life as the film goes on. Some, like Sam Yarborough (Carl Lumbly) end up playing a greater role in Chuck's life than Act Three lets on. Others, like Felicia's coworker Bri (Rahul Kohli) make essentially cameos to where you might wonder why and how they took on greater importance as he lay dying.

It is most interesting that despite seen Chuck with a wife and teen son at his death, they are not a major part of The Life of Chuck. We got a long backstory of his interest with Cat McCoy (Trinity Bliss) the best female dancer of the Spinners and Twirlers. After struggling between taking his grandfather's words about the importance of numbers and his genuine love of dance, Chuck faces his fears and with Cat free themselves to Steve Winwood's Gimme Some Lovin' at the school dance. 

You might also be startled at seeing Loki break out into a Gene Kelly routine in Act Two. One might be left speechless at seeing Tom Hiddleston burst out into a well-choreographed impromptu dance. It is interesting that Hiddleston is actually not a major part of The Life of Chuck. He appears mostly in pictures in Act Three and, given that Act One covers his childhood, he makes the briefest of appearances there, telling his wife the truth about a scar. Act Two is where he is featured the most, and most of that involves his smooth moves versus much acting. He carries the dancing off well, so there is that. 

Courtesy of NEON

The other cast members had actual moments. I did not recognize Hiddleston's fellow MCU alumni Gillan as Felicia. She was effective as the nurse who is just trying to get through the days of this ending world. 

As a side note, was the nickname that her fellow nurses received meant as some kind of comic book in-joke? In The Life of Chuck, Offerman's voiceover narration informs us that the crumbling world had many people kill themselves. As such, Nurse Felicia and her team were dubbed "the suicide squad". Make of that what you will.

Sara and Hamill were equally if not stronger as Sara and Albie, Chuck's loving but troubled grandparents. Hamill had his potential Oscar clip, a monologue where he explains that numbers are both important and just as musical as the dancing that Chuck so loves. The grief and joy that Sara shows in her performance is wonderful to see. 

I will not reveal the ending, where the mystery of what is in the cupola is revealed. I think it works within the film, even if it vaguely 2001: A Space Odyssey-like. 

I did want to like the film. I see many positives in The Life of Chuck. It is deeply unfortunate that Nick Offerman's narration: in what he said, how much he said and how he said it pushed the film down. I get the message of The Life of Chuck: each life is important, no matter how seemingly small and unimportant it appears to be. It came so close, so terribly close. 

However, it just missed the mark. I do not take away from anyone finding meaning, maybe even comfort, in The Life of Chuck. I wish though that those 39 years did not have so much narration. 

DECISION: C-