Publication Date: 07-04-2025

The Life of Chuck (2025) review

Dir. Mike Flanagan

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★

The Life of Chuck is writer-director Mike Flanagan’s first venture outside the horror genre, but the Stephen King source material assures some connective tissue never frays. An adaptation of King’s short included in his If It Bleeds anthology, The Life of Chuck tells the story of an ordinary man named Charles “Chuck” Krantz in reverse-chronological order, starting with Act Three and concluding with Act One. As a result, it’s a rare film where the weight and sadness of the climax will be dealt in the beginning, and the film grows gradually more optimistic as it goes on, making this a strange but sincere crowdpleaser.

Act Three, titled “Thanks, Chuck,” is set during what appears to be the apocalypse. Technology is failing, the internet has been going in-and-out for months, California has all-but disappeared, and natural disasters are wiping out entire countries. Cell service and the power grid are next to fry. Marty Anderson (Chiwetel Ejiofor) is a teacher struggling to do his job amidst all this calamity, and decides to reach out to his ex-wife, Felicia (Karen Gillan), for some semblance of familiarity and comfort.

All over the city are billboards boasting the likeness of a man named Charles Krantz, congratulating him on “39 great years! Thanks, Chuck!” Nobody knows who Krantz is, or why he deserves a thanks for “39 great years.” For that matter, his likeness on these billboards suggests he hasn’t been alive long enough to have a professional life last for that length of time.

Act Two, titled “Buskers Forever,” give us more context into who Chuck (Tom Hiddleston) is. It’s the shortest of the three chapters, and involves Chuck taking note of a young street drummer (Taylor Gordon), and giving way to the music for an impromptu (and outstanding) dance that eventually attracts a large crowd, and soon involves a young woman (Annalise Basso) nursing a breakup. Finally, Act One, titled “I Contain Multitudes,” shows Chuck as a young child, raised by his grandparents (Mark Hamill and Mia Sara), and showing his proclivity for dance at a tender age.

The version of Chuck played by Tom Hiddleston is only present for Act Two and bits and pieces of Act One. Chuck is played by a variety of actors: Cody Flanagan at age seven, Benjamin Pajak at 11, and Jacob Tremblay at 17. This gives the character added dimension, as it’s rare to see a protagonist at various stages of his life.

Flanagan’s film is peppered with great supporting performances. Beyond Ejiofor and Gillan in Act Three, Hamill and Sara are wonderful late-game additions, particularly Sara, who is a delight you wish was present in more movies. Matthew Lillard is low-key hilarious in an extended cameo, one in which he, amongst other things, laments the disappearance of bees and helplessly mourns the fact that he can’t pollinate crops in their absence. Kate Siegel stars as Chuck’s grade-school dance teacher; Heather Langenkamp is the Krantz’ amiable neighbor; Carl Lumbly is a mortician present in multiple acts; David Dastmalchian as a grieving father with serious concern for PornHub’s future; and Nick Offerman flexes his soothing pipes as the film’s off-kilter narrator.

I wrestled with The Life of Chuck‘s reverse-chronological structure — which is faithful to King’s short story — however, hours after seeing the film, I do see its merits. This story being told out-of-order elicits mystery until the very end, and it allows for some very astute call-backs in Act One that otherwise seemed banal in Act Three. It encourages your engagement too, and rewards sticking with the heady material as commentary about existence and the significance of the cosmos comes into play. Moreover, it’s also refreshing to see a life-story become more optimistic the longer it goes, as young Chuck is portrayed as an affable, curious young boy with aspirations to hone his craft as a dancer. At least until the inevitability of having to decide how to make a living comes into play, a concern frequently voiced by his heavy-drinking but wise, mathematical grandfather.

Unlike Robert Zemeckis’ Here, which was predicated on heavy sentimentalism, The Life of Chuck earns the emotions it inspires, even if the one I ultimately felt was intrigue above anything else. Even if it’s liable to confuse and occasionally bewilder with its surrealist imagery, it lands the plane in several moments, whether it’s a junior high gymnasium dance, or a deep-talk between Chuck and his grandfather. This is the side of Mike Flanagan I hope to see more in the future. Between this and Doctor Sleep, he also proves to have precision when it comes to finding ways to execute some of Stephen King’s most complex material, bridging the often difficult gap between the page and the screen like a confident tactician.

Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Mark Hamill, Mia Sara, Jacob Tremblay, Benjamin Pajak, Cody Flanagan, Carl Lumbly, Annalise Basso, Taylor Gordon, Kate Siegel, Trinity Bliss, Matthew Lillard, Heather Langenkamp, Violet McGraw, and David Dastmalchian. Directed by: Mike Flanagan.