Life and Death, Surviving and Thriving - a review of The Life of Chuck
I have been watching films for as long as I can remember, growing up with a father who is an artist really helped instil a love and adoration of creativity in me. There is nothing I adore more than escaping into new worlds and stories as immerse myself into the wonder that is film and cinema. However, there is a feeling that is impossible to quantify and that I am always yearning for yet rarely get to experience. It is that feeling one gets after finishing a film and in a state of awe think to yourself “fuck – I love films”. The Life of Chuck is one of those films.
I have caught this film three times in the cinema, the first occasion was in the Carlton cinema in Toronto, the second was at The Lighthouse Cinema in Smithfield courtesy of StudioCanal and Lightbulb Distribution, and the third was in Odeon PointSquare for their Limitless Membership advanced screening. Every screening of the film ended with me getting to revel in that feeling of awe and joy.
The Life of Chuck is a Stephen King novella which was adapted for the screen by Mike Flanagan, a director now synonymous with taking the words of King and translating them so perfectly to the visual medium. This film is the perfect symbiosis of King and Flanagan, and if one were to watch this film and not realise it was an adaptation, I do not think it would be incorrect to assume that this film was solely created by Flanagan. The Life of Chuck has the essence of Flanagan throughout, and in many respects feels like the natural culmination of his previous works, everything has been leading to this point.
The story revolves around the character Charlez Krantz, affectionately known by Chuck to his friends. Chuck is a man that is dying from cancer, and the film works as a rumination on life and death, as the story of Chuck’s life is told in reverse. The film starts with the third Act, in quite possibly one of the most profound ways I have seen death portrayed in film or prose. The character of Chuck is no more than an uncanny presence looming in the background of the interconnecting lives of a number of characters navigating environmental degradation as the universe they occupy approaches heath death. This act is expressing a very real fear of climate change and irreversible changes and damage to the environment around us, whilst at the same time it is a treatise on the inevitability of death. This story beautifully balances on the thin line between individual subjective worries and objective reality, and there is never a point where the story feels like you are being preached to. This is a film made with utter sincerity, and every moment is truly earned.
The middle act of the film revolves fully around an amazing moment of magnetic human connection as Chuck (Tom Hiddleston) and Janice (Annalise Basso) dance together in a public square while the character of Taylor (Taylor Gordon) plays the drums. In the hands of a lesser director this scene could feel forced or akin to a choreographed flash mob sequence. However, with Flanagan's directing and the terrific performances, this is a scene that you escape into. The sole purpose of this act and the dance sequence is to reinforce that life is about embracing the little moments of joy that come our way.
The final act of this film is Act One, which fills in the blanks of who Charles Krantz is. The narrator of the story (Nick Offerman for the film) takes us through Chuck's early life. We see that as a young boy Chuck is orphaned and is raised by his grandparents Sarah (Mia Sara) and Albie (Mark Hamill). We see how grief is ever present, but as time goes on, it is possible to grow around the wound. Chuck discovers his love for dancing through the positive encouragement of his grandmother Sarah. The supernatural elements which had a suggestion in Act Three, become present once more in the guise of the cupola of Chuck's grandparents house. Albie Krantz warns Chuck that the person who goes up to the threshold of the cupola and peers in can see the future of a person's death, either someone they know, or more hauntingly, their own. The inevitability of death is the spectre that lurks in the background of this film, casting an ever present shadow. Though instead of it being a threatening presence, it is rather benign and simply just "there". The Life of Chuck is a story about reflection and finding hope even when it is hard to do so.
This film was an arrow aimed directly at the centre of my being, and the arrow absolutely hit its mark. For most of my life since I was a young teenager, I have often found myself paralyzed by a fear of death, or perhaps more accurately, a fear of non-existence. That fear has often been so debilitating to the point that I was not truly living, I was merely surviving. The irony is not lost on me that a fear of non-existence prevented me from enjoying existence while I have it. While watching this film, I was imagining both Stephen King and Mike Flanagan grabbing my shoulders and shaking me, demanding that I get out of my own way and embrace life.
For those of you who do not know, about five years ago I had an epiphany when I realized that I was not a Cis man, rather my gender is one that transcends the rigid confines of the societally constructed gender binary. Since that moment I have had a lot of profound changes in my life. I found myself overcome with emotion whilst watching this film. I could intensely relate to the scene where Chuck leaves his school dance and thinks to himself "the universe contains multitudes, but it also contains me. In this moment I am wonderful, and I have a right to be wonderful". Similar to Chuck who we see choosing to embrace something that gives him joy, I have had a number of transcendent experiences where I was putting fear aside and letting joy lead the way. Nowadays my fear of non-existence is no longer a debilitating raging waterfall of noise, but is rather a slightly irritating running tap that I can drown out. There is a part of me that wonders if my past-self would have been open and receptive to the simple but powerful thematic message of this story. I was in such a place of self-loathing and fear of being known (because I did not know who I was), that I could not see a future where I was enjoying life. I hope that even in my darkest moments, the message of "embrace life" would have still got through to me, because that means it will do the same for other people who are in similar dark spaces to the one I used to inhabit.
The Life of Chuck is one of those films that I genuinely feel every single person should watch because there is so much to be gained from both the movie watching experience, and the messaging. I strongly believe that if more people in the world chose to embrace the moments of joy that life puts in our paths and shrug of the feelings of shame from societal conditioning, there would be a lot more happy people in the world. This story reminds us that death is inevitable, all things will end, but we are here now and should embrace every moment we are given.
The Life of Chuck is now in cinemas courtesy of StudioCanal and NEON.