The Life of Chuck
The Life of Chuck
A life-affirming, genre-bending story about three chapters in the life of an ordinary man named Charles Krantz.
rg9400 reviewed5d ago
The Life of Chuck has a compelling message at its heart. The movie goes in reverse, starting with Act 3 and then going back towards Act 1. Act 3 starts out with a unique and compelling setup completely devoid of the titural Chuck. It's a gripping hook with a mystery about how all of this will relate back to the central figure. I can tell people get confused by this section, but I thought it made enough sense without treating the audience as dumb. My problem is that I'm not entirely sure this section is necessary in terms of overall message. I do think it's an interesting decision to start at a very macro level before going in reverse and getting to the individual level, creating parallels between the two. Despite being engaging, it is so radically different from the rest of the movie, and it really feels like a Nolan-esque decision to just mess with the audience for the sake of appearing intelligent. Act 2 and Act 1 start to flesh out the significance of the movie and Act 3, with subtle callbacks that illustrate the importance of even smaller details. As the movie nears the end of Act 2, it becomes clearer what its central thesis is, and as I watched Act 1, I just felt like a lot of those callbacks didn't really further that thesis. The ones that did were great though. I've seen reviews calling the message and theme of the movie pseudo-philsophical or hokey, and I disagree there. It's a simple message, but one with a lot of sincerity and value to it. I had a few minor complaints as well. There are multiple dance sequences that are important but feel like they go on for a bit too long, and there is a lot of voiceovers from Nick Offerman that feel like he's simply reading the prose from the original Stephen King story. The ensemble casting are almost all Flanagan regulars and are all fantastic, and Flanagan is a proven talent in terms of directorial skill. While writing this review, I was hoping I would get more clarity on how I feel about the movie. Initially I started out more negative, but as I wrote, I felt like I appreciated it a lot more. It's a movie that has a lot of heart to it and brains as well. People might feel tricked by it, and there are valid complaints. Maybe it's trying to be overtly clever, and maybe my analysis in retrospect is reading too much in between the lines. Regardless, I find that Flanagan has crafted a really spiritual movie, one that gains more value the more you think about it. Honestly, that's a stunning compliment.