TRUTH AND BEAUTY DEPT. NEVER TELL ME THE ODDS

On the morning of the New York premiére of the new sci-fi movie “The Life of Chuck,” in which Mark Hamill plays a grizzled, alcoholic, math-loving accountant, the actor visited MoMath, the National Museum of Mathematics, near Madison Square Park. Hamill has accurately described his look in the film—white hair, walrus mustache, sweater vest—as “Geppetto.”

- Sarah Larson

In real life, Hamill, who is seventy-three, with blondish hair and a boyish face, looks more like a gracefully aging Luke Skywalker, as one might hope. In a gallery facing Fifth Avenue, he sipped a blueberry-and-spinach smoothie and contemplated “Topological Crochet,” an array of geometric yarn sculptures by the artist Shiying Dong. “People think about math as being numbers, arithmetic,” said MoMath’s executive director and C.E.O., Cindy Lawrence. She wore a lacy flowered top and stood next to a crocheted trefoil knot ona pedestal. “ ‘I hated that when I was in school’ is something a lot of people say.” MoMath, which “doesn't make you feel stupid,” reminds visitors that math can be beautiful.

Mysteries abound in “The Life of Chuck,” which the director Mike Flanagan adapted from a Stephen King novella. Amid dystopia, soft-shoe, and alife story told in reverse, Hamill’s character, Albie, believes that answers can be found in the night sky—and also in numbers. “Statistics or probability, it could tell you stuff about your future,” he tells Chuck (Benjamin Pajak), his young grandson. “The world loves dancers, it truly does, but it needs accountants.” Chuck, a gifted dancer doing his math homework, looks pained. “That might hurt, but it’s the truth,” Albie goes on. “Math is truth.” He encourages the boy to become an accountant.