“The Life of Chuck” won the Viewers’ Choice Award at the Toronto Film Festival last year and just opened in theaters in June. Tom Hiddleston stars as the adult version of Chuck. I saw the movie two weeks ago and then saw it again last week. Suffice it to say I loved it.
It’s a quirky little movie told in three acts with the third act being shown first. This is a fancy way of saying it is told in reverse chronological order. It is the story of the life and death — at the age of 39 — of Chuck Krantz. He’s basically a nobody, but of course he is everyman.
In that it asks us to think about the meaning of life, it is very thought provoking and serious. At the same time, thanks to a six-minute dance scene in the second act, it is joyous beyond words.
Full disclosure, the movie is based on a short story (of the same name) by Stephen King. With his pen behind it, one might think the movie would be hair-raising, but it’s really only scary in the way that the topic of mortality is scary.
And don’t be dissuaded from seeing the movie because its genre may be listed as fantasy or science fiction. I’m calling it existential.
Speaking of such, I recently presented a program on the How-to’s of Personal Reinvention. At it, an audience member asked me about the meaning of life. My response was that as a teenager, I used to make appointments with my rabbi to discuss exactly that. But, as an adult fully steeped in kids and grandkids, it is not a topic I consider. I’m just having fun with all of them while setting the best example I can of a full life.
Which is what I saw in Chuck Krantz, a man living the best life he could and finding joy where he could — in this case, dancing!
As days went on and I continued to answer the audience member’s question in my head, another movie popped to mind. It’s an oldie called “Pirate Radio.” Directed by Richard Curtis, it was released in 2009. It’s historical fiction that is set in the 1960’s when the British government did not allow rock and pop music to be played on BBC. To get around this ban, radio stations broadcast to the U.K. from ships anchored in international waters. The movie tells of one such ship.
After seeing the movie on DVD at home, I also watched the bonus materials included and thus I found a scene that had been cut from the movie. Oddly, it was the best part of the movie for me. Wouldn’t you know it? The scene is called, “The Meaning of Life.”
In it, Rhys Ifans plays a disc jockey who left his job and the ship to find life’s meaning. He explains that even though he had everything: “money, chicks, drugs, and time on [his] hands,” he still hadn’t found what he was looking for. But then he went to Guatemala, and in a bar there, someone dropped a coin into the juke box. The Rolling Stones’ song, “Get Off of My Cloud” began to play. The dance scene that follows is priceless as we watch Rhys Ifans’ character come joyfully alive! And so at the end of the scene, he returns to his job on the ship because he has figured things out. Thus he tells us, “You see, the thing that makes sense in this crazy world is Rock and Roll.”
This leads me to Lee Ann Womack and her song, “I Hope You Dance,” which peaked at #14 on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2000 and won a Grammy for Best Country Song in 2001. Its lyrics tell us never to take one single breath for granted and in the refrain she says, “When you get the choice to sit it out or dance, I hope you dance.”
So am I advocating dance here? Well, maybe I have a friend who belly dances and another who tap dances. Still another friend used to take ballroom dancing classes and my aunt and uncle used to square dance all the time. What’s the deal? What have they, Chuck Hiddleston, Rhys Ifans and Lee Ann Womack found?
“The Independent,” published an article in 2024 that answers this question. It speaks of a new study by Australian researchers who found that the best form of exercise to treat depression and anxiety is dancing. In fact, dancing beat out lots of other forms of exercise including walking, jogging, yoga and tai chi. Amazingly, through 218 different studies that include over 14,000 participants, dancing was more effective in beating depression and anxiety than SSRIs (selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors) or CBT (cognitive behavioral therapy)!
In the United States the National Institute of Health has studied this too, putting out a report in January 2024. Additionally, there is an American Dance Therapy Association with a variety of “dance interventions” to suggest.
It seems, therefore, that dance is magical in many ways, though it may not be the meaning of life. We get a little closer to that existential answer in an interview with Tom Hiddleston in “The New York Times.” He says “The Life of Chuck’s” takeaway is this: “Do whatever gives you that feeling of being alive. Dance, do math, paint, write, run, play the piano, sing, skateboard, surf, climb mountains, whatever it is that gives you deep joy, that is a transformative force in life.”
And so after two movies and Lee Ann Womack, I am going to do what brings me joy and I’m going to do it exuberantly. And probably dance a little too…
