Mike Flanagan has made a name for himself in horror films and television, but one of his strengths has always been the characters and what makes them who they are, flaws and all. His new film, The Life of Chuck, is a faithful adaptation of a Stephen King novella (taken from If it Bleeds) and one that frightens us not with monsters but with memories and fears, fractured families, and the need to remember everything good in the midst of all the bad. Although things get a bit too much at times, including the narration, Flanagan and crew deliver satisfying results.
The film is divided into three acts revealed in reverse chronological order. Act Three is a peek through the looking glass, so to speak, as we see what looks like an approaching apocalypse. High school teacher Marty (Chiwetel Ejiofor) watches things get worse through the lens of an empty classroom, failing internet, and constant reports of calamities worldwide. His ex-wife Felicia (Karen Gillan) is a nurse at a hospital that is so completely and utterly overwhelmed that it’s renamed “The Suicide Squad.”
Adding a bit of strangeness to the mix are the ads congratulating Charles “Chuck” Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) on his retirement after 39 years. The problem is that no one knows who Chuck is, and as things go from bad to worse, he also appears in TV and radio ads. The first act is an interesting story on its own, but the connection to Chuck carries over nicely to Act Two, where we see the man happen upon a drummer busking at a street corner and suddenly break into a dance without knowing why.
As the dance progresses, he attracts a crowd, including recently dumped Lauren (Annalise Basso). She is mildly amused by Chuck’s dancing and joins him. The joy from these two and the onlookers becomes a swirl of wonderful emotions and heart. You can feel something important happening here, like shifting memories of the past. It’s a beautiful scene that is the core of this segment.
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The mystery of dancing Chuck is an easy segway into the final part, Act One. Here, we meet numerous versions of Chuck as kids growing up, and things begin to become a bit more clear. His parents died, leaving a young Chuck (Benjamin Pajak) to live with his grandmother Sarah (Mia Sara) and his by-the-numbers accountant grandfather Albie (Mark Hamill).
Two things become clear very quickly. Sarah is a rock and roll-loving dancer, and his grandfather is stern but fair, giving young Chuck only one hard rule: Never enter the old Victorian house’s locked upstairs cupola. These two things would intertwine and shape Chuck’s childhood. The mystery of what lies in the cupola would charge Chuck’s imagination, and the dancing would fire his dreams. Flanagan ends the story by showing us the true power of making life-altering choices, whatever they may be.
Narrated by Nick Offerman, it sometimes walks a fine line between aiding the story and overwhelming a scene. The director weaves a tale heavy on memory and all the little things we sometimes forget that mean so much. The “I contain multitudes” line is used as a tool to explain much of the film’s big picture, yet it is also used in a way that becomes very personal.
Flanagan has stated numerous times how personal The Life of Chuck is to him and what a joy it was to make. After watching the film and feeling the sincerity oozing out of scene after scene, you can’t help but believe him.
The Life of Chuck had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival.