If it's a method that is intended to return a boolean result then I would return a boolean. I only use chaining on methods that don't return a result.

If a false result is intended to indicate an error, I would throw an exception instead - so I wouldn't need to store $result.

For the style of code I write this problem wouldn't be an issue.

(also, the $object=undef is redundant. It would be collected at the end of scope regardless.)