K G Kline's Movie Review: The Life of Chuck
Grade: A
"All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain" - Roy Batty - Bladerunner
When Roy Batty delivered his epic line just before dying at the end of Bladerunner he was referring to the value he placed on his memories. Batty believed his experiences had worth. To him they were more valuable than even Human life. For a scant few thousand years Human Beings have been able to preserve our memories through the invention of language and writing, among our greatest accomplishments. The desire to preserve our experiences may well have been a driving force behind the written word. Is it any wonder then that the child-like replicants of Blade Runner were willing to kill to preserve theirs?
While Stephen King doesn't exactly go Phillip K. Dick on us, in "The Life of Chuck" he does show us what it feels like to be a master storyteller reflecting upon, and perhaps just a bit terrified of, his own mortality. King knows someday all those characters that populate his mind will be lost when he is no more.
Told in three chapters in reverse order, that's what "The Life of Chuck" is really about - the fear of loss. Not of losing loved ones so much as losing everything we are, everything we have learned and experienced in our bumpy lives, both real and fictional.
The first chapter, titled "Thank you, Chuck", is confusing because Chuck isn't in it. We're subjected to King's biggest apocalypse yet - bigger even than "The Stand". The universe is ending. King depicts the end of all things as frightening, yes, but more so it's sad. King is so good at giving his readers hope in the darkest of times. Here, he rips it all away. It's a kick in the head, made worse by his ability to create such kind and sympathetic characters.
The second chapter, the shortest, introduces us to Chuck, an accountant. He wears an accountant's uniform, the narrator tells us, grey suit, blue shirt, blue tie, as if the man is defined by the clothes and the job. Still sad, but for a few brief minutes Chuck breaks free, swing dancing in the street with a woman he doesn't know. The scene is one of King's cinematic best. So joyful, and yet so empty. A moment in a person's life that changes nothing and yet changes everything. A moment you remember on your death bed. King mulling over his mortality.
The third chapter takes us back in time to pre-adolescent Chuck. It's the opening chapter that King has been holding onto. In this book King seems to be telling us you have to read the ending first. What is he teaching us? Perhaps that how you die is not nearly as important as how you lived. Get the ending out of the way and save the best for last.
King's story works so well because Chuck is so average. Had he been heroic, dynamic, adventurous, it wouldn't have been as effective. Chuck is simply an everyday man, an accountant, but in King's mind an accountant can be an entire universe.
Watch for Mark Hammel as Chuck's grandfather, a role that may earn him a Best Supporting Actor nomination next year.