Stirring, Heartbreaking, Mysterious. These are some of the words that come to mind after seeing The Life of Chuck, based on a Stephen King story. King is practically synonymous with words like fear, dread, and horror and this adaptation of his work is about the furthest you can get from those frightening emotions.
It’s a celebration of life, told in three chapters in reverse chronological order with the mystery of who is Charles Kranz threaded through them. It turns out Kranz, played by Tom Hiddleston (and as a younger version by Jacob Tremblay), is a pretty average guy, an accountant by trade yet someone that we see as the story unfolds has dance in his veins.
That’s right, who would ever think that a scene from a Stephen King film would rival one in La La Land?
It starts innocuously enough with Krantz walking down a city street when he comes across a drummer/busker named Taylor. (Hiddlestonites may get a kick out of remembering that he dated Taylor Swift for a few minutes.)
The beat picks up as he approaches the drummer and he can’t help but moving to the music before he spots a woman in the crowd (Annalise Basso) who’s also swinging her hips. We’ve already seen that she’s had a really bad day with her boyfriend breaking up with her by text. So this is the perfect antidote – dancing with a stranger in the middle of the street as a crowd gathers to watch them bust some moves. And boy, do they, incorporating everything from salsa to swing to reggae to rock. It’s unforgettable.
Director Mike Flanagan has dealt with grief, grief, mortality and the unknown in previous films including Oculus, Hush and Before I Wake. But here, especially in that epic dance scene that runs about five minutes, he shifts the tone to wonder and warmth– and the joy of the little things in life.
