Released: 14th August
Seen: 11th December
When you think of a Stephen King story, you inevitably think of some weird horror story with a terrifying concept and a probably less than satisfying final act. You might also think of his sci-fi work, his grandiose epic The Dark Tower or The Stand. What might be thought of less are his dramatic works, despite them being adapted into truly grand movies. Green Mile, Shawshank Redemption, movies that can genuinely surprise people when they learn it’s a Stephen King adaptation (I’ve literally seen this happen, I’ve shocked people by saying “The Green Mile is based on Stephen King). He doesn’t really get to flex his dramatic writing muscles as much because everyone generally wants a Stephen King book to be scary, but back in 2020 he released a novella called The Life of Chuck. The novella caught the eye of Mike Flanagan, who is one of the modern horror heroes, and he adapted it into a film of the same name which is certainly heartwarming but… well, let’s begin the review before I go into that.
The Life of Chuck tells the story of Charles ‘Chuck’ Krantz (Tom Hiddleston, Jacob Tremblay, Benjamin Pajak & Cody Flanagan depending on the character’s age) in reverse chronological order, beginning with Chuck’s death which also marks the end of the actual universe, then back through time to one day when he ended up dancing in the street, all the way back to his childhood spent with his grandparents. Broken up into three chapters, the film slowly and majestically explores the idea of living life to the fullest because it could all end at any second and how people can be many things, like accountants who like to dance every so often.
Charming is probably the big thing that The Life of Chuck is going for, it’s just a damn charming movie that wants nothing more than to cover the audience with a big warm blanket and let them slowly relax into something comforting. It does this by being as whimsical as it can be, every scene has everything turned up to “Aww” because it’s just so sweet and hopeful in all the best ways. Every little moment is meant to make you wistful, particularly the middle section where a clearly exhausted Chuck happens upon a busker and starts dancing out of absolutely nowhere. It’s a sequence that really does delight, there’s a real energy to it all and to see Tom Hiddleston dance is to know what joy can look like… but it’s also right after the world ending and just before we’re told about a bunch of dead parents so it feels out of place.
See, The Life of Chuck has a tone problem that can make it a bit of a weird watch. Each of the three sections feel like three very different films, the first being a weird semi-comical apocalypse with a heartbreaking ending, the middle part being a strange dance movie with dancing that’s just above wedding level and the final act is a high school drama straight out of the 1980s but with a weird twist at the end meant to tie everything together. Each of these just doesn’t quite fit, and sure, it’s undoubtedly an intentional choice to make them all different because this film and this story leans heavily on the idea of people having multitudes, so therefore the film has multiple tones but that doesn’t make the transition between each section any less difficult.
It’s hard to deny that each section of The Life of Chuck is genuinely fantastic, the first part slowly builds tension as to what the hell is causing everything to go wrong and how it all relates to Chuck. The second part is just pure joy, showing how special breaking out of the mundane can be. The final act is a touching family drama that explores the idea of familial expectations and how childhood dreams are hard to get rid of, each part is wonderfully put together and dramatically fascinating but oh god when it’s time to change to a new section it just doesn’t work. The brakes get slammed on and the film shifts to the furthest lane without any warning, you get a touch of whiplash and it takes a full minute to get acclimated to what’s happening now.
When The Life of Chuck works, which it mostly does, it’s one of the most charming things you will ever see. Mike Flanagan has made his name in horror, but the man seems to just be generally good at everything because he really does nail it most of the time here. You get this sense of learning about this kind of normal guy who lived a kind of normal life and it’s just nice, there’s something undeniably nice about what you’re being told about Chuck. He’s not here to save the world or suffer horribly or anything, it’s a drama made about an average guy who lives a pretty normal life and that’s pretty relatable. There’s something about him that you want to enjoy while you can.
The Life of Chuck is a simple, effective and enjoyable film that’s mostly soothing and heartwarming. While it’s structure can create some problems for the viewer and make it a little hard to keep invested at some points, and a few of the story beats are a little bit iffy (I don’t really think people would be that charmed by a white guy doing the moonwalk with little to no flavour in it) it’s still just a really good film that’s got enough heart to make anyone feel special, just for a little while.
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