The Life of Chuck (15) |Close-Up Film Review
Dir Mike Flanagan US, 2024, 110 mins
Cast: Tom Hiddlestone, Mark Hamill, Jacob Tremblay, Benjamin Pajak
Review by Carol Allen
The life story of Chuck, the title character, is told backwards in three acts. In the first the world appears to be coming to an end, certainly in this particular small town in America. Climate change is ravaging the country, the internet and other digital media are all failing, the local doctor (Karen Gillan) is trying to cope with an escalating suicide rate and her ex-husband, schoolteacher Marty (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is trying to carry on as normal. And intriguingly, posters are appearing all over town with a picture of a modest looking man in glasses and a suit with the slogan “Charles Krantz. 39 great years! Thanks Chuck!” And come to that, who is Chuck?
We find out in Act2 , as Chuck, a modest looking, bespectacled accountant taking a break from an accountancy conference is walking along the street, when he is captivated by the sound of busking drummer The Pocket Queen (Taylor Gordon).
Chuck (Tom Hiddleston) and a passing young woman Lauren (Annalise Basso), who has just been dumped by her boyfriend, move into a spontaneous swing session worthy of Fred and Ginger or Gene Kelly and Cyd Charisse only more so. What relevance it has to the life of Chuck we know not at this stage but it is a terrific sequence with all three participants glowing with joyous energy. I had no idea Hiddleston could dance like that. And it’s here that we learn that Chuck is not the grey and colourless accountant we first see him as but a man who can experience the total joy of being alive.
Lastly in Act 3, as he faces death at the age of 39, we learn about the life that Chuck, played as a child by Jacob Tremblay and in adolescence by Benjamin Pajak, has lived; the people who have helped shape his life and the way he has viewed the world.
We briefly glimpse once more the schoolmaster Marty, looking the same age that we saw him in Act !, when the world was ending. Then there’s his grandmother (Sarah Krantz) who inspired his love of dance, the teacher (Samantha Sloyan) who encouraged it and the grandfather who brought him up after Grandma died – a beautifully realised performance from Mark Hamill, now 73 but who still exists in our memories as the once upon a time young Star Wars hero. It’s a casting which sort of emphasises the philosophy of the film about the value of each and every life and its impact on others.
