Cast: Mike White, Chris Weitz, Lupe Ontiveros, Beth Colt, Paul Weitz
Director: Miguel Areta
Producer: Matthew Greenfield
Screenplay: Mike White
Cinematography: Chuy Chávez
Music: Gregory 'Smokey' Hormel, Tony Maxwell, Joey Waronker
U.S. Distributor: Artisan Entertainment
One of the reasons that Alzheimer's Disease is so painful is that it strips away a fundamental building block of the victim's identity: memories. Our personalities are formed by these snippets of emotion and image, frozen in a kind of mental amber and locked away deep in our brains. Some can be accessed at will, but others are hazy and indistinct, and can only be summoned forth with effort by the subconscious. Chuck & Buck, a low-budget, independent feature from director Miguel Areta (Star Maps), examines the power and ambiguity of memories, and how the meaning and import of a particular event is in the mind of the person remembering. What leaves an indelible impact upon one individual may be forgotten by another.
In childhood, Buck (Mike White) and Chuck (Chris Weitz) were best friends. They did everything together, from climbing trees to the kind of innocent sexual exploration that occasionally happens between 11-year old boys. For Chuck, this was a stepping-stone to a healthy, well-adjusted adulthood. Now living in Los Angeles, he is a high-powered executive in the recording industry with a gorgeous house, plastic friends, and a beautiful fiancé (Beth Colt). Buck, on the other hand, became stuck in adolescence. At age 27, he is socially unformed, mentally immature, and fixated on his limited sexual experience with Chuck. When his sick mother, whom he has cared for in her old age, dies, it galvanizes him into action.
Buck invites Chuck to the funeral, and the two meet for the first time in 15 years. Chuck is a different person, but Buck is not, and it doesn't take Chuck long to realize that his former friend is afflicted with a bizarre personality, and is no longer the kind of individual he wants to have contact with. However, an obsessed Buck follows Chuck to the West Coast, where the haunting and stalking begins. When Chuck tries to explain that the past - as well as their friendship - has been buried, Buck doesn't want to hear it. He blames Chuck's fiancé, Carlyn, for ruining their relationship, and sinks all of his savings into producing a play, Hank and Frank. Written by Buck, this is a thinly-veiled account of his friendship with Chuck transplanted into an Oz-like setting. The play's director, the quick-witted Beverly (Lupe Ontiveros), calls it "a homoerotic, misogynistic love story" - a label that confuses Buck, who sees it as an innocent fairy tale about how he lost Chuck to Carlyn.
Chuck & Buck is a dark comedy that presents its characters starkly. Hollywood delights in turning mental instability into a "cute" condition, and making individuals afflicted with it quirky and likable. Chuck & Buck does no such thing. Buck, ably portrayed by writer Mike White, is a disturbing person. We're never entirely comfortable when he is on screen. He's an innocent in an unkind world that he is unequipped to deal with, and the potential for harm (either to him or to someone else) is incipient in every scene. The goal of Chuck & Buck is to offer a realistic depiction of how the naivete of a childhood friendship cannot survive intact into adulthood, not to present a feel-good account of two old friends reconnecting. Chuck & Buck is not a buddy movie.
In a Hollywood version, Buck's play, Hank and Frank, would be a big success. Here, however, it's a masterpiece of ineptitude. Buck casts an incompetent actor, Sam (Paul Weitz), in the lead role because he reminds him of Chuck. But Sam is a misanthrope who does not recognize Buck's immaturity, and the two develop an awkward, tentative bond - until Buck makes a clumsy and inexperienced pass at the resolutely heterosexual Sam. When the play is eventually performed, Chuck is horrified by what he sees, and by the realization that Buck's fixation on their friendship is not going to spontaneously vanish.
The acting is solid. As is always the case when a film contains an abnormal character, the actor portraying him takes the spotlight. That's the case here with White, who gives the more "showy" performance, capturing the essence of a child trapped in an adult body, who doesn't understand why his best friend doesn't want to come out and play any more. Meanwhile, Chris Weitz, who bears a passing resemblance to a young Christopher Reeve, offers a controlled portrayal of Chuck, who tries to avoid openly rejecting Buck until his patience wears thin. Lupe Ontiveros steals scenes as Beverly, and Beth Colt and Paul Weitz provide additional support.
Chuck & Buck is being referred to as a comedy in some quarters, but that's a misleading label. To be sure, there are some humorous moments, but Chuck & Buck is too unsettling to be genuinely funny. It's also not a love story. Buck is obsessed, not in love, and the object of his obsession is not the idealized image he envisions. By the end of the film, we understand Buck, even if we don't connect with him on an intimate, emotional level. And it's nice to note that Chuck & Buck closes on a hopeful note that allows us to leave the theater satisfied but not depressed.
© 2000 James Berardinelli