“Life is too long,” wrote TS Eliot.
So does horror master Mike Flanagan’s film “The Life of Chuck,” which premiered last week at the Toronto International Film Festival.
Based on a not-at-all-scary short story by Stephen King, this one-off tale unfolds backwards in three parts, and is narrated by Nick Offerman like a lumbering Dr. Seuss.
The first, in which Chiwetel Ejiofor plays a school teacher named Marty who is faced with an impending apocalypse, is so bad you think there must be a reason why it's messed up.
And that is true, but the twist that explains this confusing world takes the quality of the film from terrible to great.
For starters, there's a mix of religion-science-fiction not unlike “The Leftovers,” only a little less so, and a natural disaster scenario similar to “The Day After Tomorrow.”
The East and West coasts are submerged in oceans, the Midwest is on fire, and the internet is down. Yet, people mindlessly travel to work and school, circling around sinkholes because they don't know what else to do.
Flanagan retrieves some gallows from the collapsing planet. At a parent-teacher conference with Marty, a broken man laments the loss of Pornhub.
Ejiofor, as Marty, is in a state of emotional paralysis – drinking at home and talking philosophical, mathematical nonsense on the phone to his ex-wife. Knowing the end is near, he sets out in search of her.
But wherever Marty turns, he finds mysterious billboards, radio spots and TV commercials that read, “Charles Krantz, 39 great years! Thanks, Chuck!”
Who buys ads at the end of the world?
So, the main question of the darkly comic part one – besides “what time is it?” – is “Who is Chuck?”.
The second, music-driven chapter unravels that unknown. Then we finally meet Chuck (an unforgettable Tom Hiddleston), a dull businessman traveling for work in a dull city that resembles a Hollywood town.
Flanagan's film continually asks the question of whether human beings are products of fate or chance.
This sophomore segment makes a case for spirituality, as Chuck coincidentally encounters two women — a street drummer (Taylor Gordon) and a recently single retail worker, Janice (Annalise Basso), who recently got over a breakup — via text message.
Sensing the energy in the air, the drummer begins to beat out a rhythm while Chuck and Janis spontaneously begin to dance on the asphalt as if they were Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers.
The duo's routine is remarkably professional – this is also explained later – and initially joyful, but it doesn't know when to stop. Of course, the TIFF audience thoroughly enjoyed watching Hiddleston kick his hoof.
Then, the final, darkest third story is about 7-year-old Chuck (Benjamin Pajak), who goes to live with his grandparents after his parents die.
Grandma Sarah (Mia Sara) loves to dance (get it?) and Albie (Mark Hamill) is a mathematician accountant who teaches Chuck practicality through statistics and warns him against ever going into the scary locked attic. Being a King story, there's a touch of the supernatural.
Pajak, who played Winthrop in “The Music Man” on Broadway with Hugh Jackman, lights up the screen with his realness. The story of his youth, which stars Flanagan regular Samantha Sloyan as a saintly dance teacher, is clichéd but endearing.
And a few years later, Chuck was played by Jacob Tremblay, who was no longer the sweet little boy from the “Room.”
The film's finale, in which we gradually see the large and small elements that come together to form the adult Chuck, is far more satisfying and touching than it would be in reality.
Perhaps I was so disappointed because Flanagan has proven himself a master puzzle maker in such excellent series as “The Haunting of Hill House” and “Midnight Mass.”
In “The Life of Chuck,” all the pieces come together very clearly. And the conclusion – that a person is a product of experience, and one should not judge a book by its cover – is well-presented to the point of falling completely flat.
Still, on Sunday the film won the all-important TIFF People's Choice Award. This award, which isn't chosen by pretentious critics or industry juries, has been a solid predictor of Oscar fortunes over the years.
The last 12 films have received Academy Award nominations for best picture, and three films in that span have won the top honor: “Nomadland,” “Green Book” and “12 Years a Slave.”
It's nearly impossible to imagine a life similar to “The Life of Chuck.”
