The Life of Chuck: A Tale of a Life Not Worth Telling (Blu-ray)

The Film:

As noted previously, given his popularity & his prolific work output, it always seems like the next Stephen King adaptation is right around the corner. However, it also always seems like about 90% of the time that means it's another tale of horror, like the multitude he's so incredibly well-known for ("The Shining," "Carrie," "Misery," etc.). When it comes to non-horror works, he's given us a pretty impressive collection that's gone on to make some rather popular adaptations as well, including Best Picture nominees "The Green Mile" and "The Shawshank Redemption," as well as "Stand by Me," all of which showed that he's not an author to be confined to just one genre.

Now we come to the latest transference of his work from page to screen with "The Life of Chuck," adapted and directed by Mike Flanagan, based on the 2020 novella from "If It Bleeds." It's an extremely peculiar film, one that was quite divisive with critics, but one that was popular enough to win the prestigious People's Choice Award at the Toronto International Film Festival, an honor that has resulted in a Best Picture nomination for the last 12 years in a row. As it always is in intriguing situations like this, it becomes a fascinating endeavor to see whether the public or the professionals are closer to the mark, and for a film as particularly unorthodox as this one, it only becomes more so.

As the film is told in reverse order, we begin with Act 3, which primarily focuses on teacher Marty Anderson (Chiwetel Ejiofor), who slowly witnesses events that appear to be leading up to the end of the world, including natural disasters, the death of the internet, and total loss of phone service. Marty's ex-wife Felicia (Karen Gillan) calls him up and they discuss the ongoing situation, and when things get even worse, Marty decides to go to her house so they can spend their final moments together. All throughout this, strange billboards & ads have been appearing everywhere, thanking a Charles Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) for 39 great years, eventually revealing him dying in a hospital from a brain tumor. The remainder of the film takes us on an exploration of his life, from one grand day of expressing his joy of dance as an adult to the young man who was inspired by his grandmother to take up dancing in the first place.

"The Life of Chuck" is indeed a rather peculiar film, but it's also rather fair to say that it's a somewhat misleading one. It starts off in a rather riveting fashion, with an opening act that portends the end of the world, following an everyday school teacher through the events as he decides how he wants to spend his last moments, all the while giving us bizarre glimpses of the mysterious Chuck, who is being thanked for 39 great years, though nobody seems to actually know who he is or what he's done. It's a gripping, tension-filled opener that has you hanging on to see what strange thing could possibly happen next, setting the stage for what one assumes is going to be just as gripping an explanation as what we've been witnessing.

However, following this intriguing start, a rather curious thing happens. The film undergoes a monumental shift, not just in plot, but in tone, giving us a middle act that's bizarre on its own terms, but not necessarily in a good way. We finally meet Chuck the accountant as he was in his usual adult life, except that this middle portion is strangely devoted to showing us his love of dance, displaying his passion and perhaps a little regret for not taking that route in life, and replacing all of the gripping tension & mystery with nothing more than a little random dance party.

This may have been well enough, had the third act been willing to circle back and give us a payoff for what had been a fantastic start, but all we get instead is a fairly standard story of Chuck's tragic childhood in which he lost his parents and sibling-to-be in an accident, causing him to be raised by his grandparents, admirably played by Mark Hamill and Mia Sara. His grandmother inspires him to take up dancing at school, and it all leads up to, still in a very standard fashion, a school dance, where he eventually gets the nerve to dance with a girl from the club.

Obviously these two latter acts are meant to be a life-affirming, feel-good experience, but it's done in such a bland, predictable, and sappy fashion that it ends up giving one the feeling that they're watching nothing more than a cheesy Lifetime movie. It's so remarkably different from that great opening act, that, had it not been for the forced connections that are dropped throughout the final portion, you'd swear that they were from a completely different film. In the end, it becomes a rather curious notion as to why someone would write a story or make a film about Chuck when he's simply not that interesting or unique a person.

Now don't get me wrong, it's not a particularly bad film. There's a marvelous cast involved, but there just isn't much that they can do to elevate the overly-sweet, heavily-sentimental material that arises in the latter two-thirds of the screenplay. It's a shame because it seems like there was a great film that could've been produced from its intriguing beginning, but once it leaves there, it just turns into the forgettable life story of a very average and forgettable individual, one that sadly wasn't worth turning into a theatrical experience.

Video/Audio:

"The Life of Chuck" comes to Blu-ray in a combination of 2.39:1, 2.0:1, and 1.85:1 ratios in a 1080p High Definition transfer of outstanding quality, presenting a picture that's beautifully sharp & clear throughout its entire 111-minute runtime. Likewise, the 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track is marvelous, giving you all of the dialogue and music in excellent quality. Overall, NEON has done a fantastic job in both areas for the film's physical release.

Special Features:

Feature Commentary with Writer/Director Mike Flanagan

The Making of The Life of Chuck (18 Minutes): A look behind the scenes at the making of the film, featuring interviews with the cast & crew.

On-Set Interviews with Tom Hiddleston (14 Minutes), Chiwetel Ejiofor (10 Minutes), and Mark Hamill (9 Minutes)

Conclusion:

Mike Flanagan's adaptation of Stephen King's "The Life of Chuck" is a rather bizarre, mixed bag of a film. It starts off with a gripping opening act that follows a school teacher through events that appear to be signaling the end of the world, but then undergoes a monumental shift to become an overly-sweet, sentimental, and quite sappy exploration of the life of an individual who simply isn't particularly interesting or unique, making for a dramatic experience that builds up quite a lot of potential, but ultimately fails to follow through on it.

Score: 2.5/5

Available on Blu-ray starting today.

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