Just when I thought I’d just catch it on streaming, the film adaptation of The Life of Chuck, a short story culled from Stephen King’s If It Bleeds, is finally showing in theaters. Thanks to Ayala Malls Cinemas, which included it among its August offerings, more than two months after it premiered in the US.
Here are five reasons it was worth the wait. Happily, none of them requires any spoiler alert.
Who wants to live forever? The late great Freddie Mercury is, of course, credited for immortalizing that question in a love song.
If we go by the continuing global interest in blue zones, centenarians, and stem cell therapy, quite a lot, it seems. But what do you do if you are only given more than half of what the World Health Organization estimates as the average longevity of a Filipino (i.e., 66 for men and 74 for women)? How would you confront your mortality? How would you then choose your possibilities? And while we’re at it, if it’s up to you, what would you rather be doing when the world comes to an end?
The Life of Chuck offers a thought-provoking route to contemplate these questions. This alone is worth the ticket price.
Absence as presence. It’s been decades since I lost my Papa (i.e., Katz to friends, Bennie to relatives) to cancer. and my Nanay Ninay to old age. They are no longer here. And yet they are still very much here. They live on in the wonderful possibilities that they helped me discover about myself—from learning I could pluck guitar strings, to realizing I could easily stitch together words that can win extemporaneous speech contests. They live on in the values I’ve grown to embrace, such as love of family and hard work and those that I’ve learned I should discard.
The Life of Chuck reminds us of how much of ourselves we indubitably owe to our parents and grandparents.
Teachers as influencers. In a 2014 Atlantic interview, Stephen King confessed that had he not achieved the success that he had, “I would have gotten a degree in elementary ed. I was discussing that with my wife just before I broke through with Carrie. Here’s the flat, sad truth: By the time they get to high school, a lot of these kids have already closed their minds to what we love. I wanted to get to them while they were still wide open.”
Clearly, King did not just regard teaching as a means to an end. This could probably explain the pivotal role of not one, not two, but three teachers in Chuck’s growing up years. Rather than get into the details of how exactly Chuck’s teachers helped him channel the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche’s “become who you are,” let me just say that after the movie, I found myself whispering thank yous to my teachers whose dedication to their craft and devotion to their calling made a dent in my life. I guarantee you will, too.
When all is one and one is all. Much has been written against the planned reduction of humanities courses in favor of science and mathematics courses in the Philippine curriculum. By employing drum music and kinesthetics in what is possibly the most memorable scene of the movie, The Life of Chuck will make you realize how deeply flawed and one-sided such a plan is. Indeed, after watching this movie, to the many cool things that music, could do—according to this poster that is sitting in our den—I can now add: Music makes me want to study mathematics, despite my fear of mathematics.
No post-credits scene? No problem. Not being a DC or a Marvel movie, The Life of Chuck has no post-credits scene designed to pave the way for a planned sequel. But it more than makes up for this, as it stimulates thoughts and questions that you won’t be able to resist discussing with your friends and loved ones, who I hope you will take along with you: Why were the three acts sequenced that way? Which parts were likely in Chuck’s mind? Which parts were actually part of how his story unfolded? Did he have a crush on that girl, or was that my imagination? Was the final scene for real? Or was it metaphorical?
Intrigued already? Go see it with your family and friends, so you too can exclaim: Thanks, Chuck, for 111 great minutes!
