The Life Of Chuck

GoMovieReviews Rating: ★★★★

Rated: M

Directed by: Mike Flanagan

Screenplay Written by: Mike Flanagan

Based on the Novella Written by: Stephen King

Produced by: Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy

Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillian, and Mark Hamill.

‘Charles Krantz, 39 Great Years!  Thanks Chuck!’

The Life Of Chuck could also be described by quoting Walt Whitman: ‘I am large, I contain multitudes.’

Set in three acts, starting with Act Three, The Life Of Chuck is a film of seeming spontaneity and synchronicity.

I say seeming spontaneity because what seems the whim of a businessman dancing in the street to a drum beat hit on a cow bell on the down beat isn’t a spontaneous crazy moment, but a spontaneous moment with a backstory.

Narrated by Nick Offerman, Act Three opens with a light echo of laughter.  Before fire trucks siren past.

There’s no internet.  ‘I don’t think it’s coming back this time.’

The world is falling apart, and teacher Marty Anderson (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is stuck in traffic.  The radio is talking nothing but doom and gloom.  He changes the station to listen to music.  He looks up at a poster, ’Charles Krantz, 39 Great Years! Thanks Chuck!’

He’s everywhere.  Like Charles Krantz is the world’s ‘last meme’.

There’re circles within circles in the storyline with characters returning like a spoke on a wheel centering on the man that is Chuck (Tom Hiddleston).

The film based on the novella written by Stephen King (2020) (I’m a fan, always have been because he writes people so well) is Chuck’s life backwards.

A life shown by the rhythm of an ECG showing the heartbeat of the world.

‘I contain multitudes.’

Mick Flanagan has written the screenplay and directed, here another successful adaptation (I gave Dr. Sleep (2019) ★★★★ see review here), translating the character study of Chuck on screen while exploring the idea of the apocalypse being the end like the end of Chuck’s life being the end of the universe.  With an added dash of the supernatural.

Like the novella, Flanagan has retained the three-act structure, he states, ‘One of the things I loved the most about the short story was the structure. Our lives only truly make sense when we look back at them.’

It’s a film filled with moments that are joyful and sad; a bittersweet remembrance of dancing in the kitchen with grandma (Mia Sara), to Marty Anderson speaking to his ex, Felicia (Karen Gillian) about the cosmic calendar as the world ticks down the seconds to the end.

It’s a film about life and death with a recurring theme of Chuck the man in an attempt to explain it all yet somehow keeping a light heart in the telling.

Poignant but not devastating.

This isn’t a horror movie.

There’re beautiful moments here.

And a demonstration of a complicated take on humanity living on a planet that has an end, like we’re given life to appreciate with the knowledge of certain death, shown through the lens of a master storyteller adapted in a way that doesn’t exactly capture the magic but comes damn close – it’s hard to quantify the magic of a story in one’s imagination to one portrayed on the screen.

But Flanagan has used the visual medium of film to create more layers to the idea of synchronicity so there’s flags used to demonstrate those important moments in a person’s life, leading them to suddenly decide to dance in the street.

As an avid fan of King and Flanagan, this is again a successful collaboration making a complicated and deep conversation about our meaning and what it means to be a human, a genuine pleasure to watch.

Flanagan says, ‘I wanted so badly for it to exist in the world for my children. This is a movie I wanted them to be able to find in their lives when they might need it. And because it’s especially a new thing for me. I wanted to protect that swelling in my heart that I felt when I read it.’

He also states, ‘It is always a challenge for me on a number of levels, including a very personal one because Stephen King is my favorite author, and my literary hero. So letting him down on an adaptation would be devastating to me.

On many levels, this is a reaching for the stars and capturing the light type of film from: the writing, screenplay, directing and performances.

Flanagan has honoured the tone and human aspect of King’s writing, creating something: funny, sweet, cynical (because it’s cynical times) and life-affirming by showing characters’ shine their true selves, warts and all.