WIDESCREEN FOCUS: CHUCK
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| CHUCK | IFC - Millennium Films | Directed by Philippe Falardeau | Biography, Drama, Sport | 98 min. | R |
CHUCK opens with the film's namesake (Chuck Wepler, played headstrong and achingly raw by Liev Schreiber) in the middle of a bar, about to take on another major heavyweight: a bear, a real life bear. It is that opening sequence that fittingly sets the scene as to what Chuck will be hitting head on, as he bobs and swings through the ascension of his career and the precarious pitfalls that come with that goal against the public, the media and himself.
The story of this townie heavyweight is a thing of American legend, in both the sporting and film industry. That story, as with all myths, is molded, sculpted to fit the parameters of who it is being told to. The real man this victorious folklore is derived from has a much more to reveal with each punch that is taken at him.
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| The "Bayonne Bleeder", prize heavyweight fighter, Chuck Wepner (Liev Schreiber) |
Originally titled THE BLEEDER when it premiered at the Venice Film Festival last year, director Philippe Falardeau (Oscar-nominated Best Foreign Film MONSIEUR LAZHAR) takes a dreary, honest but enjoyable dive into the world of the mid-seventies, with its blue collar living, suede beige and burgundy leather backdrop attitude, and all the trappings that came with it in New Jersey. The city of Bayonne is set as its own character, with all its inhabitants trying to make a difference in this third tent, with its big city brothers of Newark and NYC, bookending it to an afterthought. With Wepner fighting for it, in their heads, he can help their town make a mark, be someone, though the overall public opinion and press have labeled him the "Bayonne Bleeder," not for making his competition bleed in the ring, but for his hemophiliac run whenever he gets a cut or gash.
That doesn't stop him.
Chuck truly believes he can take on the entire world and it is that motivation that makes him a formidable opponent; quick to talk big, exuding bravado without backing, put into place from his surroundings and his ever dutiful, though understandably at breaking point, wife Phyllis (whip smart and assured Elisabeth Moss, The Handmaid's Tale).
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| Phyllis 'Phyl' Wepner (Elisabeth Moss) sobers up the headstrong, cocksure Chuck Wepner (Liev Schreiber) |
those around him can do, on both sides of the spectrum. A constant flirt, Chuck pushes the patience of Phyl, primes the pump of his physicality to go head-on for the infamous "race card" fight against Muhammad Ali that his boxing manager Al (Ron Perlman, Sons of Anarchy, giving it a hard nosed, lovingly paternal performance), then toys with his close friends (his gullible sidekick, played close to the comedic chest by Jim Gaffigan, EXPERIMENTER) on the ties of involvement he may have had when that story ultimately finds its way to the silver screen through Sylvester "Sly" Stallone to score Chuck a bigger name, bigger win and bigger problems.
The price is paid as Phyl catches him up on his foils. His family becomes collateral damage that, as he states about his face, can take a punch and still be standing. Or so he thinks. What gets him past the rope of the local discos, ultimately leads to heavy territory, pushing from his day job to make ends meet doing liquor runs to the raging drug boom of that decade.
It is his seemingly disinterested and nonplussed inner network that ultimately shows off the failing vulnerability of what this internal responsibility to live up to what ROCKY is to Chuck Wepner and work tirelessly to maintain that infallible status in his mind. His only brother (Michael Rapaport, SULLY) pushes him aside to give him the focus he needs for his family, but feels obligation to seeing Chuck through his sordid world. Local bartender Linda (straight-talking, no nonsense aplomb from Schreiber's real-life wife, Naomi Watts, 21 GRAMS) knocks sense into him, but won't be bothered with his gauche pomposity that walks through her door.
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| Linda (Naomi Watts) take a round with Chuck (Schreiber) |
All comes colliding together as the world falls on him with its massive blow of realized potential: the excesses to what it means to Chuck to "live the life" with the promise of women, drugs and notoriety. There is no bright side with the visceral tap turned all the way open on a man driven to win, with blinders on to the rest of the world. Like Jackie Gleason's character Maish Rennick says about Chuck's onscreen hero of 'Mountain' Rivera, "He's been chasing ghosts so long he'll believe anything. Any kind of a ghost." We believe in Chuck, we want to see him win, but wince with each demon and ghost that catches up with him.
This film is worth the rounds in the ring with Chuck, and rooting for him along the way.
CHUCK is now playing in select theaters
