FILM REVIEW
THE LIFE OF CHUCK
Rated R
110 Minutes
Released June 6th
A heartfelt movie of lie, love, friendship and loss, delivered in the style of those 1940’s classic films that move us all to tears, like It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street, The Life of Chuck is designed backwards on a timeline, and it catches you off guard, before you realize you are watching a feelgood story with a message of life affirmation. It’s beautifully written and visualized by writer/director/editor Mike Flanagan, based on a 2020 short story by Stephen King, also a producer on the project. Written stories don’t often translate well to film. This one does, resoundingly. The movie reminds us that things we pay no attention to because they are ordinary are part of what makes life magical.
Flanagan was born in Salem, Massachusetts, home of the Salem Witch Trials of the late 1600s. Although he lived there only a short time, the town left an impression on his work. He has been making films since he was a kid with a wild imagination and a VHS camera, most of his films being in the horror genre. He began his career editing sketch comedy shows, reality TV shows, and commercials, and secured his own funding for his first feature, Absentia (2011). He was the creator and showrunner for TV shows such as The Haunting of Hill House, Midnight Mass, and The Fall of the House of Usher. Tom Hiddleston, who stars as “Chuck” in this movie, says of Flanagan, “He innately understands that when you’re directing a film, you’re conducting an orchestra of people all bringing their own immense skill and imagination to the table.”
While most moviegoers know Hiddleston as “Loki” from the Thor and Avengers movies, he is an accomplished Shakespearean actor trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts and has appeared extensively on stage. His resume includes the BBC series, The Hollow Crown, Stephen Spielberg’s War Horse, and Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris. He plays piano and guitar. He has never been a dancer, but in The Life of Chuck, he dances beautifully in perhaps the most memorable scene of the film. Of his role, he says, “None of us are one thing, we contain multitudes, and somebody who looks like an accountant on the street may in fact be an extraordinary dancer.” He trained daily for weeks for the dance sequence and feels that the scene “was expressing something profoundly wise about being alive.”
Hiddleston and Annelise Basso, also not a professional dancer, practiced day after day to perfect this sequence choreographed by the legendary Mandy Moore (La La Land, Taylor Swift Eras Tour, Babylon, and more). Then they spent a week with the extraordinary street drummer/recording artist, Taylor Gordon, also known as The Pocket Queen, who in the scene sets up her drums in front of a store and inspires Hiddleston’s and Basso’s characters to dance.
Moore says, “I really loved that dance played a role in the most casual sense. It wasn’t some big performance or a big musical number or a dream sequence.” The dance is a focal point in this cinematic life journey, as it should be. Dance can reaffirm life when all seems lost. One day, when my life appeared to be heading over a proverbial cliff, I walked by a building with Scott Joplin piano music wafting out of the second-floor windows, accompanied by the lively percussion of a group of tap dancers. I walked up the stairs to see what was going on, and that action changed my life trajectory.
The supporting cast are all master performers: Jacob Tremblay, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Carl Lumbly, David Dastmalchian, and more. Flanagan persuaded Mia Sara (Ferris Bueller’s Day Off) out of retirement to do the film. Mark Hamill has a pivotal role as “Albie.” All these characters are normal people, but they are shining with the gift of life. Ejiofor says of the film, “There’s a very unique quality to this, in the tone, in what it’s speaking to philosophically – how emotional it is, how wise it is…” Hamil says, “How do you describe the indescribable. All I can say is go see it. Trust me.”
The Life of Chuck has become a cultural phenomenon at a time when we need one. Don’t take the story literally – open your mind and let it flow in. You may find some sequences seem familiar. The opening of the film reminds me of a vivid dream I had as a child. Each life is a story unto itself, an all-important moment in this vast universe. Your life is the world you create. Make it beautiful. Dance, with your body, your eyes, your ears, or just with your mind. Chuck has so much tragedy in his life, and he continues to dance. We should learn to find the joy in every moment and treasure the people around us.
“And those who were seen dancing were thought to be mad by those who could not hear the music.”
– Friedrich Nietzsche
Kathryn Whitney Boole has spent most of her life in the entertainment industry, which has been the backdrop for remarkable adventures with extraordinary people. She is a Talent Manager with Studio Talent Group in Santa Monica. kboole@gmail.com
