The Life of Chuck: Stephen King drama dripping with eyeroll sentimentalism

Stephen King may be better known for writing killer clowns, killer cars and killer husbands, but the prolific author has also dabbled in less homicidal fiction.

One such story is The Life of Chuck, a 2020 novella about a man named Charles “Chuck” Krantz, who at the age of 39 is dying from a brain tumour. Don’t worry, it’s not so morose as that.

As the title implies, it is about his life, told through three reverse-chronological acts – a celebration of all the joys and all the loss that makes up the tapestry of any one person’s time on this spinning planet, no matter how long or how short.

If that sounds a bit schmaltzy, it’s only a sliver of the sentimentality heaving through almost every frame of the film adaptation, starring Tom Hiddleston as Chuck, although he is really only in the middle act, the shortest of the three.

The first portion, which flashes up on screen as “Act Three: Thanks, Chuck”, is centred on a character named Marty Anderson (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a middle school teacher in an unidentified American town.

It’s the end times as natural disasters befall millions around the world – California has just fallen into the Pacific, a volcano emerged in Germany – while the internet goes down, and so does the emergency TV signal.

But people are not running around in a panic. There’s almost a philosophical acceptance and people flock to the important people in their lives, as Marty does to his ex-wife Felicia (Karen Gillan).

What does confuses everyone are the ads popping up on TV, on radio and across billboards, the photo of a smiling man (Hiddleston), with the words, “Charles Krantz: 39 Great Years! Thanks, Chuck!”

In act two, “Busker Forever”, we get actually meet Chuck, an accountant attending a banking conference who takes a stroll in the afternoon sun through the town centre where drummer Taylor (Taylor Gordon) is busking.

As Chuck walks past, there’s something about the beat of Taylor’s music that evokes something deep within him, and without conscious reason, he starts to dance, and is soon joined by a young woman, Janice (Annalise Basso).

By the time the film gets to act one, the last segment, you have a much better understanding of what it’s doing, and this time, it’s Chuck’s childhood (portrayed mostly by Benjamin Pajak, and then later by Jacob Tremblay as a teenager).

After the deaths of his parents, he lives with his grandparents (Mia Sara and Mark Hamill) in an old Victorian house with a mysterious locked cupola he’s forbidden to enter.

His grandmother loves to dance, and when Chuck was little, she teaches him and exposes him to old Hollywood musicals.

The film was written and directed by Mike Flanagan, a filmmaker who has mostly worked in horror with his popular streaming series The Haunting of Hill House, The Haunting of Bly Manor and The Fall of the House of Usher, as well as films such as Ouija, Oculus and Gerald’s Game.

Flanagan is also, clearly, a fan of King, bringing Doctor Sleep, the sequel to The Shining, to the big screen in 2019, and is working on the Carrie streaming reboot.

That could explain why The Life of Chuck is so prosaic. Flanagan stepped out of the genre tropes with which he is most familiar, usually working with material that are metaphors for different human experiences, rather than just literal depictions.

The Life of Chuck is a very straightforward drama with an element of magical realism, but it’s not working on any deeper levels beyond life has ups and downs. There’s no subtext, it’s all text and that text is dripping with mawkishness.

There are some strong performances here. Ejiofor often brings a calmness to his roles while it’s great to see Sara back (yes, the same Mia Sara that was Ferris Bueller’s girlfriend Sloane). Hiddleston also knows how to convincingly bust a move.

But few are called on to play more than basic beats, except for David Dastmalchian, who has a memorable, three-minute scene as a parent bemoaning his wife leaving him and their son and Pornhub going down as the world starts to end.

The Life of Chuck might satisfy those who prefer their dramas with a heaping of triteness and nostalgia (it did win the audience award at the Toronto International Film Festival last year, but so did Green Book in 2018, so, you know…), but for most, it’s more of an eyeroll than a tearjerker.

Rating: 2/5

The Life of Chuck is in cinemas.