The Life of Chuck
Dustin Chase
Despite his cultural popularity and prolific writing, Stephen King adaptations rarely translate well to cinema. For every “Shawshank Redemption” or “The Green Mile,” you have numerous duds. Seasoned screenwriters, producers, or directors find a way to make King’s mostly horror or mystery genre fiction work for the big screen. Still, often his adaptations are relegated to the smaller screen in episodic form. Writer/director Mike Flanagan gained notoriety adapting “Doctor Sleep” (2019), King’s follow-up to “The Shining.” The only horror you will find in “The Life of Chuck” is apocalyptic climate change scenarios. Told in reverse order, “Chuck” begins with the end of all things and works its way back to the beginning.
Charles Krantz’s billboards and commercials are all over town. They read: “Thanks for 39 years.” Yet no one knows of the guy. The adverts grow stranger and more abundant as the world begins to deteriorate. California falls into the ocean, and internet and mobile communications are lost worldwide. Middle school teacher Marty Anderson (Chiwetel Ejiofor) shrugs “this suck” to each new step that pushes civilization closer to extinction. Charles “Chuck” Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) lived a mostly ordinary life as an adult. Despite the tragedies of his youth, he grew up with loving grandparents, loved to dance, and followed a similar path to most children his age. What’s different about Charles is what he saw in his grandparents’ attic at the age of 17.
“The Life of Chuck” is a blend of the “would you if you knew” theme of “Arrival,” but staged a bit more like “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.”
Of the three acts told in reverse, each one warms the audience up to the different characters. One is mysterious and more on the side of science fiction. Another is a dramatic comedy, while the last is a coming-of-age story. Within these stories, there are beautiful, even touching scenes that almost start to make sense, until we are pulled back into the timeline again. “The Life of Chuck” is a blend of the “would you if you knew” theme of “Arrival,” but staged a bit more like “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” Human connection is one of the central motifs that is sprinkled throughout every situation in the acts. Yet it’s the clunky mystery that occupies so much of the audience’s attention. Flanagan’s assimilation of the material is disjointed with the heartbeat of one act failing to revive or inspire the preceding one.
Final Thought
As imaginative and poignant as some moments are, “The Life of Chuck” is a frustrating experience that once again proves much of Stephen King’s work is best left on paper.