‘The Life of Chuck’ Review

From director Mike Flanagan, best known for his Netflix horror series such as ‘The Haunting of Hill House’ and ‘Midnight Mass’, and based on a Stephen King short story, ‘The Life of Chuck’ is an emotional fairy tale. These two masters of horror have delivered a tearjerking fantasy about how people find meaning in the end of the world.

The story is told in three acts, in reverse order. We open in a world that plays like an amplified version of our current one: climate change is wreaking havoc across the globe, technology is becoming unreliable, and humanity is growing apathetic with all of the destruction. Marty (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a teacher trying to handle parents’ anxieties and his own during a day of parent teacher conferences. Everybody tries to go on with a sense of normalcy, but as the fate of the world is in question, every character is forced to reckon with what are the moments, and who are the people, that matter most to them if these are truly the end times.

As people respond to the potential end of the world, there seems to be only one constant – billboards, TV commercials, and advertisements all thanking an accountant, one Charles Krantz (Tom Hiddleston), for 39 years of service.

I won’t go any further into the plot, because so much of the dramatic impact is in following these characters as they make sense of their new world. As a depiction of the possible end of the world, real or imagined, ‘The Life of Chuck’ is unique in just how pedestrian it seems. It is both inspirational and maddening how quickly humanity can adapt to new normals, and that is what we see with the people in this film. As things change, slowly at first, people are more than willing to go about their day to day lives, hoping things will get better but soldiering through anyway if they won’t.

In case you’re pre-disappointed that Mike Flanagan is opting for fantasy drama rather than his usual wheelhouse of horror, there are certainly some scenes where Flanagan flexes his mastery of that genre; lingering shots on seemingly empty rooms, sudden shocks of noise and action. This is the potential end of the world, after all, so opportunities for scares persist even if they are more of an accent than the primary mood.

This movie is jam packed with tiny, beautiful performances. The main cast, including Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, and Karen Gillan, provide warmth and empathy even as they’re battling their own anxieties, but it’s the rest of the cast that elevates the emotional impact of the film. Matthew Lillard and David Dastmalchian appear for one scene heaters, bringing such different yet authentic approaches to the end of the world, with such feeling, that they leave an indelible mark. Mark Hamill plays a drunken grandfather, struggling to manage his own traumas while still being filled with love for his family. And then there’s the regular stable of Mike Flanagan actors who have populated every TV show he has made, appearing in fun and surprising roles throughout the film. Each of these performances contributes to the overarching message that there is no single way to live, no right way to handle the end, we can only do our best to appreciate who and what we have when we have it.

There are certainly moments when Flanagan overdoes the schmaltz, when the voiceover becomes too much and the action too cutesy. And yet I can’t deny that the film as a whole is emotionally effective. ‘The Life of Chuck’ tells a beautiful story of people coming together, trying to rationalize and find meaning in the million little things that make up a life. With a unique vision of the end of the world combined with a very human interest in the small mercies that define us, ‘The Life of Chuck’ is a moving drama bursting with originality.

The Life of Chuck
Rated R for language.
Running Time: 1 hour and 51 minutes

Director Mike Flanagan
Writers Mike Flanagan
Stars Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Mia Sara, Carl Lumbly, Benjamin Pajak, Jacob Tremblay, Mark Hamill
Rating R
Running Time 111 Minutes
Genres Drama, Fantasy, Sci-Fi