The Life of Chuck: A poignant story. Photo / Supplied
The Life of Chuck: A poignant story. Photo / Supplied
Review by Sarah Watt
Sarah reviewed for the Sunday Star Times until 2019. After a career change to secondary school teaching, she now she works in alternative education with our most disadvantaged rangatahi.
The Life of Chuck, directed by Mike Flanagan, is in cinemas now.
If you didn’t already know from his talkshow appearances that British actor Tom Hiddleston can dance, you’ll be in no doubt after watching The Life of Chuck.
Taken from a Stephen King novella, the unusually structured, feelgood, poignantstory only brings the titular Chuck into its second act. But this powerful introduction sees Hiddleston (Loki, The Night Manager) swinging in an impromptu dance with a complete stranger, and as a crowd of shoppers gathers to cheer them on, you may hear the sound of your own heart cheering, too.
Told in three, tantalisingly confusing parts that are relayed in reverse order, the plot intricacies of The Life of Chuck are best unspoiled. But its through-line gives new meaning to the notion that we are all the main character in our own story.
It begins in an America that is inexplicably facing the End Times: the internet has been down for eight months, natural disasters are destroying the planet (“California is peeling away like old wallpaper!”), and ordinary folk face and disturbing things on a daily basis. Karen Gillan’s hospital worker Felicia is numb from dealing with constant suicides, while her teacher ex-husband Marty (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is near to giving up preparing his recalcitrant students for a bleak future.
Suddenly, billboards, radio adverts and tannoys are thanking a mysterious “Charles Krantz” for “39 great years!”. No one knows who or why, but as the film continues, a wonderfully touching and thought-provoking notion unfolds.
The Life of Chuck is unexpected and strange, and entirely in a good way. Writer-director Flanagan (best known for horror movies) is a lifelong fan of King, and with a great cast that includes a career-best Mark Hamill as Grandpa Albie, Nick Offerman’s dry voiceover and an astonishing cameo from David Dastmalchian, we are kept intrigued and moved by each realisation.
Such a tale could have been unbearably saccharine, but Flanagan nails the partly comedic, partly philosophical tone. If The Life of Chuck doesn’t make you get up and dance, it’ll surely prompt you to rediscover some other forgotten dream.
