Put Walt Whitman, Carl Sagan, and (the kinder, gentler) Stephen King in a blender and you’ll get something like The Life of Chuck, writer-director Mike Flanagan’s adaptation of the King novella of the same name. The film consists of three sections, essentially taking us backwards through the life of mild-mannered accountant Charles Krantz (Tom Hiddleston). As the movie gazes at the stars while ruminating on what it means to “contain multitudes,” The Life of Chuck is moving at times and sappy at others. (It got a tear out of me and I can be a tough nut to crack.) As something of a blank-check project for Flanagan—who has successfully shepherded existentially inclined, literary-inflected horror across film (Gerald’s Game, Doctor Sleep) and television (The Haunting of Bly Manor, The Fall of the House of Usher)—the movie also feels a bit indulgent in its pacing and penchant for monologues. Yet overall, The Life of Chuck has a generosity and earnestness that helps it get by on goodwill. As the young Chuck, an orphaned boy who comes to love dance, Benjamin Pajak steals your heart, while Mia Sara (Sloane from Ferris Bueller’s Day Off!) tenderly anchors a few key emotional moments as his grandmother and Mark Hamill brings a theatrical gravitas as his grandfather. Nick Offerman’s narration will likely be a divisive element, but I thought it hit the right notes of gentle sagacity, while also providing a sense of authorial cohesion.
(6/18/2025)
