It’s the end of the world but it’s cosy

The Life of Chuck is an adaptation of a novella by Stephen King by writer-director Mike Flanagan, so one might expect a chiller-thriller of the order of their previous collaborations, such as Doctor Sleep or Gerald’s Game.

But despite an opening segment depicting a global apocalypse — and a supernatural component in the third act — this isn’t a film built around horror beats. It marches to the thrum of a different drummer altogether.

The Life of Chuck shoots for life-affirming inspiration, which is not unfamiliar territory for King, whose non-horror works include stories that have spawned the films Stand By Me and The Shawshank Redemption.

One startling distinction is that this film is adventurously constructed around three seemingly disparate stories.

In the first, the citizens of a community are rocked by events that signal the end of the world is at hand.

The events, which include California breaking off into the Pacific, are of growing concern to small-town teacher Marty Anderson (Chewitel Ejiofor), who decides to help his community cope with the breakdown of society in a series of meetings that function as a combination of parent-teacher sessions crossed with psychotherapy.

The circumstances present an opportunity for Marty to come to an understanding with his ex-wife, Felicia (Karen Gillan), even as both seek to understand the mysterious preponderance of billboards and TV ads sporting an image of a benign-looking accountant type, bearing the legend: “Charles Krantz. 39 Great Years. Thanks Chuck.”

Who is Charles Krantz? The inspired second segment tentatively answers that question with Tom Hiddleston’s titular Chuck, indeed an accountant, visiting a town for a business conference.

Wandering the quaint streets, he happens upon busker Taylor (Taylor Gordon) literally trying to drum up some cash. Inspired, Charles approaches the freshly dumped Janice (Annalise Basso) and the two proceed to dance up a storm. Questions remain: Who is this guy? What does the film’s first part have to do with its second?

All questions are answered in the third segment, in which we learn the life history of Chuck, starting with a tragedy that sees young Chuck (Jacob Tremblay) being raised by loving grandparents (Mark Hamill and Mia Sara) while navigating his way to adulthood, encompassing a love of dance and his granddad’s sober admonition: “People like dancers, but they need accountants.”

This segment offers the key to the film’s puzzle, in which a teacher explains a Walt Whitman poem to young Chuck, also quoted in the first act.

In his other horror projects, such as the vampire series Midnight Mass, Flanagan demonstrated he is a filmmaker who should never be accused of sentimentality. He has a gift for portraying human frailty in a way that makes it all the more devastating when his characters meet terrible genre fates.

Even without the supernatural hoohah, Flanagan’s gift holds firm here. Stressing the humanistic, his film is ultimately a celebration of creativity, whether that takes the form of brazenly dancing in the street, or engaging in a secret creative process for an audience of one.

randall.king.arts@gmail.com