‘The Life Of Chuck’ review: Tom Hiddleston headlines sentimental Stephen King adaptation

Dir: Mike Flanagan. US. 2025. 110mins

Having constructed a fame as a grasp of contemporary horror, Mike Flanagan (Hush, Physician Sleep, TV’s The Haunting Of Hill Home) switches gear for The Life Of Chuck. Based mostly on a 2020 Stephen King novella, the movie continues Flanagan’s penchant for King variations, however this story advised in reverse largely swaps out the chills for a heartwarming, if sometimes overworked, research of life, demise and what it means to be (very ordinarily) human. Peppered with well-handled style component, it stars Tom Hiddleston alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan and Flanagan favourites comparable to Kate Siegel and Rahul Kohli.

Comes near capturing the infinite worth of a person life

Having tailored Gerald’s Sport and Physician Sleep, and now engaged on TV variations of The Darkish Tower and Carrie, author/director Flanagan has a knack for plugging into the rhythms of King’s work, balancing emotion alongside darker parts. Whereas followers of each King and Flanagan could also be shocked by Chuck’s lighter, extra sentimental method, they need to assist it to sturdy returns. The Life Of Chuck premiered in Toronto, the place it gained the Folks’s Alternative award, and expands large within the US on June 13 by Neon (after a restricted opening on June 6) earlier than arriving in UK cinemas on August 22 although Studiocanal.

The movie begins on the finish of the story, with a chapter titled ‘Act Three: Thanks Chuck’. A gap sequence sees a high-school pupil studying Walt Whitman’s poem ‘Tune Of Myself’ (“I comprise multitudes,” he asserts to his bored classmates), which is able to emerge because the movie’s leitmotif. 

A lot of this primary section is wilfully mysterious, because the inhabitants of a small US city – together with instructor Marty (Chiwetel Ejiofor, giving one of many movie’s strongest performances) and his ex-wife Felicia (Karen Gillan) – face what seems to be an incoming apocalypse. Local weather catastrophes ravage the planet. The web and telephone networks collapse (resulting in a tragicomic cameo from David Dastmalchian as a father lamenting the lack of on-line porn as a lot because the departure of his spouse). And, weirdly, adverts start to seem thanking Chuck Krantz (Hiddleston) for his ’39 nice years’ – the difficulty is, no-one is aware of who Chuck is.

‘Act Two: Buskers Eternally’ provides extra of a way of the person as Nick Offerman’s wry narration introduces Chuck as a strait-laced accountant in his late 30s. In opposition to all appearances, Chuck feels impressed by a drumming busker (Taylor Gordon, aka The Pocket Queen) to bounce on the street with a passing stranger (Annalise Basso). Fuelled by The Pocket Queen’s infectious, energetic beat – which overshadows the remainder of The Newton Brothers’ muted rating – and lensed with Wes Anderson-like whimsy by cinematographer Eben Bolter, this prolonged, meticulously choreographed sequence initially feels disconnected to what has come earlier than. However, regularly, delicate ripples of familiarity start to seem – by dance, dialogue, design and characters – and develop in energy with the transfer to ‘Act One: I Include Multitudes’.

This remaining section is maybe probably the most consistent with Flanagan’s typical work, because it revolves across the youthful Chuck (performed, at numerous ages, by Cody Flanagan, Benjamin Pajak and Jacob Tremblay), who lives along with his grandparents Sarah (Mia Sara) and Albie (Mark Hamill) following the demise of his mother and father. Right here, there are sturdy echoes of different Flanagan creations comparable to Midnight Mass, in its humanistic method to demise, or Hill Home (tailored from the Shirley Jackson novel) and The Haunting Of Bly Manor in a household house that hides darkish secrets and techniques and whispers of demise – particularly the padlocked cupola that is still frustratingly off-limits. Chuck doesn’t imagine Sarah’s clarification of rotting floorboards, and is more and more drawn into the grieving Albie’s tales of ghosts and horrifying premonitions – a fascination that may finally convey the narrative full circle.

To say any extra can be to spoil the expertise, however this remaining part is maybe somewhat too involved with becoming a member of all of the dots with the intention to land the satisfying reveal. Additionally it is considerably at odds with the movie’s overarching message: that we’re, certainly, multitudes, inconceivable to outline. “Would solutions make a very good factor higher?” is among the movie’s repeated refrains. On this case the reply would appear to be no however, for probably the most half The Life Of Chuck stays a transferring drama that comes near capturing the infinite worth of a person life.