Mike Flanagan’s latest film “The Life of Chuck”, which won the People’s Choice Award when it was shown at the Toronto International Film Festival in last year, interested me for what it is about and then touched me for how it is about. Based on the short story of the same name by Stephen King, the movie three different stories all connected with the life of its titular figure, and its main pleasure comes from how we gradually behold its big picture about the dark and bright sides of life bit by bit. 

The first act, which is actually “Act Three”, feels like one of those surreal episodes from American classic TV series “The Twilight Zone”. When one plain school teacher seems to be going through another ordinary day at his workplace as trying to teach his students a bit on a certain famous poem written by Walt Whitman, the human society suddenly begins to fall apart step by step via a series of inexplicable catastrophes, and he certainly feels quite perplexed just like many others around him, though he still tries to go on as usual.

As his daily life gets collapsed in one way or another without any possibility for recovery, the teacher cannot help but notice a certain odd thing. When he saw an advertisement associated with a guy named Charles “Chuck” Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) for the first time, he does not take that seriously, but, what do you know, he keeps noticing several other advertisements associated with Krantz. It looks like this figure is someone very important in his neighborhood, but the teacher has no idea on who the hell is – and neither do several others encountered by him along the story.

Meanwhile, the teacher comes to consider meeting his ex-wife again before whatever may happen in the end. Although there was some bitterness between them before their divorce, they have been relatively friendly to each other after their divorce, and she and the teacher later come to have a long philosophical conversation on how transient the existence of the humanity actually is compared to the history of the universe.

Now this sounds rather boring to you, but Flanagan knows how to write and present a good conversation scene on the screen. Several long conversation scenes in the film never feel ponderous at all thanks to Flanagan’s solid writing, and, above all, they are fluidly unfolded on the screen without being too preachy. When the teacher talks to his ex-wife about what Carl Sagan said in that famous science TV program of his many years ago, the movie gets a bit too symbolic in my humble opinion, but this key moment is filled with genuine emotions thanks to Flanagan’s competent handling of mood and performance, and then it comes to function as the emotional ground for what will happen around the end of the first act.

After we eventually come to learn about who the hell Krantz is, the movie moves onto its middle act of the film, which is presented as “Act Two”. We meet Krantz again, and he goes through another ordinary working day of his without much spirit, but then he comes upon something which comes to stir up an old hidden memory somewhere inside his mind. Even though he has no idea on what that old memory of his exactly is, he soon finds himself showing an active response, and that leads to a very, very, very special moment for not only him and two total strangers but also a bunch of people around them.

You surely notice that my description is rather vague. I simply want you to watch this wonderful scene for yourself without knowing anything in advance, and I assure you that you will be reminded of how many of us sometimes come across a chance to sense how beautiful life can be even though it mostly sucks for us before we eventually arrive at our miserable final destination. Yes, joy and happiness cannot last that long, but isn’t it really nice to savor them at least for a while?  

Around its last act, which is presented as “Act One”, the movie does not seem to have much surprise for us as slowly heading to its eventual finale, but it becomes more poignant than expected. There is another wonderful scene which will surely resonate with the aforementioned scene in the middle act, and we are not disappointed at all when the movie finally adds a sublime finishing touch to what has been carefully building up to that point.

The main cast members did a commendable job of filling their archetype roles. While Tom Hiddleston’s earnest performance is connected well with the three different young actors playing his character’s younger versions, several other notable performers in the film including Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Mark Hamill, Carl Lumbly, and Mia Sara are also effective in their respective roles. The dry narration by Nick Offerman is enjoyable with several wry moments of deadpan humor, and some of you may be delighted for the brief appearance by Heather Langenkamp, who was the heroine of Wes Craven’s classic horror film “A Nightmare on Elm Street” (1984).  

 In conclusion, “The Life of Chuck” is another entertaining feature film from Flanagan, who previously gave us a series of well-made genre products “Oculus” (2013), “Gerald’s Game” (2017), and “Doctor Sleep” (2019). He demonstrates here the more sensitive sides of his talent, and it will be interesting to see what this competent director will do next after this modest but likable drama movie. After watching it, I came to reflect more on how my life has been going, and I may look back at its highlights more as time goes by.