THE LIFE OF CHUCK (2025) review
written by: Mike Flanagan
produced by: Mike Flanagan and Trevor Macy
directed by: Mike Flanagan
rated: R (for language)
runtime: 111 min.
U.S. release date: June 6, 2025 (limited) and June 13, 2025 (wide)
People live and die every day. It’s a fact. “The Life of Chuck” offers an unconventional look at one life, ultimately giving us an appreciation for something we often take for granted: time. Our time here is finite, but we rarely think about it. Sometimes it takes something outside our scope to recognize this, and that’s what writer/director Mike Flanagan’s latest movie, an adaptation of the Stephen King novel of the same name (which appeared in 2020’s If It Bleeds), did for me. The shorter works by the iconic author have often focused less on horror and more on humanity, and they wind up being some of King’s better film adaptations, like 1986’s “Stand By Me” and 1994’s “The Shawshank Redemption”. “The Life of Chuck” can be added to that short list.
Despite having directed King adaptations in the past (“Gerald’s Game” and “Doctor Sleep”), the story is a bit of a departure for Flanagan. He’s made a name for himself in the horror genre in feature films and episodic Netflix material; however, this ambitious story seems to fit Flanagan’s sensibilities. It tells the story of one man’s life in an unconventional, somewhat cosmic manner, with the helmer fully committed to subjects such as regret, memory, and the internal universe within us all. There’s a sentimental, wistful approach to it all in the best way possible. It’s being described as “life-affirming,” while that’s true, it surprisingly resonates because it’s released when affirmations feel hollow in a world where fear and cynicism run rampant.
At the onset, we’re asked to consider this specific line from Walt Whitman’s poem “Song of Myself (found in Leaves of Grass): “Do I contradict myself? Very well then, I contradict myself. I am large, I contain multitudes”, a proclamation found in the source material that Flanagan reiterates throughout the film in a lyrical style. Flanagan maintains the novella’s unique approach by telling the three-part story in reverse, from the end of a man’s life to his beginning, dropping us without context save for the narration from an unseen Nick Offerman.
The name of the first act, “Act 3: Thanks, Chuck,” can be read on the screen, establishing that something is strange right from the start. Here we learn that the world as we know it is falling apart. Catastrophes are occurring all over the globe, from destructive natural disasters (a massive earthquake tumbles California into the Pacific) to a worldwide internet outage. It’s also being reported that the suicide rate is rapidly increasing. Middle school teacher Marty (Chiwetel Ejiofor) keeps track of these terrible changes, becoming overwhelmed by the news while attempting to maintain a sense of normalcy. That’s difficult to do during parent-teacher conferences when parents (played by the likes of Harvey Guillén and David Dastmalchian, the latter of whom portrays a father who laments Pornhub) would rather talk about the disruptive current events outside the classroom. Realizing these concerning events also consume him, he reaches out to his ex-wife, Felicia (Karen Gillan), a nurse struggling to process what’s happening. All around them messages celebrating the retirement of accountant Charles “Chuck” Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) can be seen, illuminated on billboards, banners, and windows, stating, “Charles Krantz: 39 Great Years! Thanks, Chuck!” (it can even be heard on television and the radio), glowing in frequency as the end of the world approaches around Marty and Felicia. Clearly, an imminent apocalypse is on everyone’s mind, but what’s up with this preoccupation with Chuck and his retirement?
“Act 2: Buskers Forever” introduces us to Chuck, who we find contentedly strolling along a promenade on a break from a banking conference he’s attending in Boston. He stumbles upon Taylor (Taylor Gordon), a young drummer busking away on a corner. She sees Chuck and proceeds to roll out a beat just for him. He stops, places his briefcase on the ground, and dances spontaneously. It surprises everyone (except Chuck) that he’s quite a good dancer! Janice Halliday (Annalise Basso) walks toward the crowd gathering around Chuck, focused on the stream of break-up texts she’s receiving from her boyfriend. When Chuck sees that Janice is as into Taylor’s drumming as he is, he invites her to join him, and the two break into a jubilant improvised dance routine that takes everyone by surprise. The trio has an uncanny chemistry, and it feels as if the world was made for such a moment as this.
The longest act is the final one, “Act 1: I Contain Multitudes,” which covers Chuck’s childhood and adolescence and includes obvious and subtle ties to the two previous acts. We meet 7-year-old Chuck (Cody Flanagan), who lives with his paternal grandparents, Albie Krantz (Mark Hamill) and Sarah Krantz (Mia Sara), after his father and pregnant mother were killed in a car accident. Chuck has a stronger connection to Sarah, his “bubbe,” who teaches him a love for dancing, than he does with Albie, his “zahyde”, an accountant who has lost himself in alcohol since the death of his son and forbids Chuck from entering the cupola at the top of their Victorian house. The boy is curious about the mysterious room, mainly because of how gravely serious his grandfather is about it. Sarah distracts him from that, inundating the boy with an introduction to classic musicals.
11-year-old Chuck (remarkable newcomer Benjamin Pajak) signs up for “Twirlers and Spinners, ” an extracurricular dance class his middle school offers. There, he thrives and eventually teaches the whole class how to moonwalk. This is also where Chuck finds his first crush, Cat McCoy (Trinity Bliss), who becomes his frequent dancing partner, someone he eventually gets the nerve to dance with at the Fall Fling, despite her having a boyfriend. That’s also the night she kissed him, and he later injured his hand while dancing in celebration.
It doesn’t take us long to realize that Chuck’s story is being reversed here. Flanagan follows the same structure King did, adhering to the source material with steady loyalty and adding his own minimal flourishes. This isn’t a biography of Chuck, but rather moments from his life, some seminal and others impactful enough to shape who he will become and his decisions. How did Albie’s stoic advice involving the numerous qualities of math and the ways of the cosmos chart a path for Chuck’s future? Did he age out of the whimsical playfulness and joy his bubbe instilled in him when he turned seventeen (Jacob Tremblay), or did that creative passion gestate? Since his story is told in reverse, these questions kind of answer themselves, but this. However, this storytelling approach allows us to put puzzle pieces into their appropriate space when Act 3 comes around, providing us with a “big picture” look at the eponymous character.
Speaking of Chuck, while Tom Hiddleston is on the poster, and his exuberant dance sequence is heavily marketed in the promotion for “The Life of Chuck”, he’s really only in one-third of the film. Hiddleston is great, of course, but he shares the character with three other wonderful talents who play the younger Chucks. The standout is Benjamin Pajak, who gets the most screen time as Chuck. He conveys such an authentic purity about him, the kind that’s right in tune for the adolescent years, when time spent with grandparents winds up being everlasting golden moments. The kid is just great. It helps that he’s working alongside Hamill and Sara. While Hamill is getting an understandable amount of praise for his atypical casting (there’s even talk of a Best Supporting Actor nomination), I was quite smitten with Sara, who broke her acting hiatus to portray a source of kindness and encouragement for young Chuck. They’re scenes together are some of my favorite of the film.
Other stand-out moments involve supporting characters with engaging albeit brief conversations that leave strong impressions. In Act 1, Ejiofor’s Marty has two conversations before he reunites with Gillan’s Felicia, one with Sam Yarbrough (the great Carl Lumbly), a local mortician, and another with his neighbor Gus (Matthew Lillard), both of which are poignant reflections on the end times they are experiencing. Fans of Flanagan’s previous work will recognize certain actors appearing in other brief roles. It was a delight to see a spirited Heather Langenkamp (of “Nightmare on Elm Street” fame) show up as an elderly neighbor of the Kranz family that Pajak’s Chuck visits. All in all, it’s an impressively strong cast played by actors who fully commit to the parts they play with just the right calibration needed.
While some may find parts of “The Life of Chuck” mawkish and saccharine, the overall approach is rewarding and straightforwardly earnest. It is refreshing to have a movie remind us that even the seemingly most minor and ordinary lives have a spark of divinity. We are a culmination of all the places we’ve been to, all the things we’ve experienced, and everyone we’ve met. Lately, I’ve wondered what will happen to all my memories, desires, and creative endeavors when I’m gone. That happens when those you once considered “old people” start resembling peers. “The Life of Chuck” posits that when we die, those worlds within us also die, but it also encourages us to allow that spark within us to shine, even if it’s just now and then.
RATING: ****
