Life of Chuck

I went into The Life of Chuck knowing nothing about it other than it being a Stephen King novella.

I assumed the movie was going to be horror, and I was so wrong, in the best way. Mike Flanagan was a director I was unfamiliar with as well - so my expectations were really empty.

That being said - The Life of Chuck took the beats of what makes a great horror film - fleshed out and relatable characters with a unique and mysterious situation to put them in.

I want to leave my critique relatively vague as I believe the hook of the film works best going in without knowing much.

I left the film feeling a mix of joy and melancholy and appreciated the artistry that brought me there.

I do recommend.

I haven't read the Stephen King novella the film is based on, but The Life of Chuck feels more like an emotional experiment than a fully fleshed-out story. It clearly wants to be deep, weaving time, memory, and mortality into a puzzle-like structure, but it often slips into sentimentality instead. The film leans heavily on melancholy and nostalgia, which might resonate more with viewers going through personal loss or depression. For me, though, it lacked real emotional depth beneath the poetic surface. That said, the performances are strong, and the concept is intriguing, even if it never quite delivers the impact it aims for.

Summed up, Mike Flanagan made a deep, multilayered yet beautiful film about the value of life. It's really hard to explain but Flanagan does not waste a single shot. There is a narration throughout the movie, yet right from 'Act Three,' everything seen and experienced unfolds perfectly in 'Act One.' Ejiofor & Gillan are fantastic in Act Three but if The Life of Chuck is to be nominated for anything, it has to be the sound. From the cosmic elements in 'Act Three' to the dancing scenes in 'Acts Two & One,' Flanagan did an exceptional job incorporating the sound throughout.

Of course, everyone was focusing on Hiddleston and his character, but Tom even mentioned it was really a team effort in Act Two and Annalise Basso, Hiddleston's dance partner in Act Two, and Taylor Gordon (who is in the credits as The Pocket Queen), the busker, all three combined with their choreographers Mandy Moore & Stephanie Powell really make the dance scene sing. Taylor Gordon is a talent in herself in her brief, but excellent role.

What surprised me was how Act One was with young Chuck and no one talks about how excellent the kids were. Their performances were just as brilliant as the adults, if not more so when young Chuck receives a very haunting monologue from his grandfather (an unbelievable Mark Hamill) about certain choices in life. Act One really helps put the puzzle together that was Act Three, where the cosmic elements can be off-putting, but it all serves a purpose. Stephen King is right when he says The Life of Chuck is one of the good ones. The spirit and energy is felt from beginning to end, and with all on board performances giving their best, Flanagan is further establishing himself as one of contemporary's greater directors.

One thing I will say is The Life of Chuck is dedicated In Memory to Scott Wampler. And there are a few cameos in The Life of Chuck but Scott's inclusion just tugged me right at the heart. Great film.

I went into this with no idea about what this film was about, other than it was supposedly life-affirming and feel-good.

The structure of the movie wasn't something I expected, but understand the intentions. The movie starts with the 3rd act, which is completely detached from the bulk of the movie. I don't want to add spoilers, so won't go into too much detail but to me, this 3rd act sets up a completely different movie to the one that plays out. Again, I understand the intentions, but I was ready for a completely different type of movie by the end of the 3rd act.

Acts 1 & 2 are great and more in-fitting with what I presume are the intentions of the story, but even here, I wouldn't say "life-affirming" or "feel-good" are the emotions I left with. In the end I left with melancholy and sadness, both at the story of Chuck, but also what this movie could have been.

Production, acting and cinematography are all excellent, so no complaints there. It's just that 3rd act at the beginning that threw me. As I said above, I was ready for a totally different type of movie, which I think would have been far more interesting to explore i.e. - end of the world and, rather more interestingly, not setting up a complete hellscape/dystopia, but instead seeing individual and society's reactions as they try to cling on to normality and watching things evolve as things progressively decline.

On the whole, I enjoyed this film, but I didn't "love" it, nor would I sing its praises too much if quizzed about it.

There is a concept here about the truth: we live, and then we die, and because I know it's a movie based on a story by Stevn King it has me asking the question: which am I more afrriad of?

I know the ambiguous trailer did not seem like anything you would expect from a Steven King movie, but what I got is exactly why this dude is The Master of Horror.

Maybe I am reading too much into a film, possibly influenced far greater by Mike Flanagan's filmmaking, yet the emotion I felt for this movie was deep.

That's the brilliance of this movie, I felt something at the end, and it made me think, and it was beautiful for that.

It's everything I expected from a movie/