The Life of Chuck
A non-linear adaptation of a short story by Stephen King – heartfelt with a great cast, it’s stretched too thin to satisfactorily tell the story of Chuck Krantz.
Set in California, it opens with Act Three and follows Marty Anderson (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a teacher through who we watch the universe come to an end. Like a dystopian film on fast forward, he watches the news to see countries being washed away by the climate crisis, the death of the internet, roads crumbling into huge sinkholes, and a rapid rise in suicides.
As Anderson tries to understand what’s happening, posters of Chuck Krantz have started appearing on billboards, park benches, and on TV with the tagline, ‘39 great years. Thanks Chuck’. But no one knows who Chuck is.
In Act two, we meet Chuck as an adult, he’s an accountant on a work trip, and one casual stroll through town finds him spontaneously dancing to the drumbeat of a busker. It’s very good dancing, and the threads begin to connect in our understanding of who Chuck is.
Then in Act One, we get Chuck as a child and a young adult, and it’s here we discover where his dancing prowess came from, and the heart of the story.
I’ve done my best to skirt around the bigger plot points here, but you hopefully get the idea.
There are problems with this film, to start with, this film screams short story. It’s well-intentioned and has a fantastic cast to propel it further than it really should be. But once you’ve worked out the crux of the story, there isn’t much more to go on, with themes and motifs essentially repeating themselves, and most of them are connections to explain the third act.
Adding to this is the way the film teases who Chuck is but doesn’t let you dwell on much before showing you the answer. Which while not the case for every thread, it becomes less impactful once you’ve worked out the formula, which happens very early on.
My other frustration is that I can see what this film is trying to do and why it attracted such a big cast. It’s a story with a lot of heart to it, which when done well, is moving, cathartic, and visually delightful. It’s just stretched and overshadowed by supernatural elements that bookend it, and while they add intrigue, they’re also in danger of overcooking the analogy.
I still felt totally empathetic for Chuck, each actor playing the stages of his life did well. Portraying the everyday man suppressing his creative talents, even if Hiddleston’s American accent does occasionally waver. The film feels misjudged as a feature. Perhaps Life of Chuck is more suited to an anthology of Stephen King’s work and would benefit by being an hour shorter. I just wish it trusted its audience to sit with the mystery rather than spoon feeding it.
The Life of Chuck is available on Netflix