Directed by Mike Flanagan
Certificate 15, 110 minutes
Released 20 August

‘What are mortals, that you should think of them?’, asks the psalmist.

Stephen King is known as a horror writer, but he sometimes breaks that mould; his stories have produced the films Stand by Me (1986), The Shawshank Redemption (1994) and Apt Pupil (1998). His story The Life of Chuck (published in 2020) is different again.

A three act structure tells the tale in reverse, starting off with an Act 3 title card. The three related chapters concern a man named Charles Krantz. Each chapter has a unique cast of actors, yet the stories, because they are about him, are linked.

The first story (Act 3) is an End of the World story. California has fallen into the sea; the internet has gone down permanently. School teacher Marty Anderson (Chiwetel Ejiofor) conducts PTA meetings and, with various roads in gridlock, walks to visit his ex-wife Felicia Gordon (Karen Gillan) before everything ends.

Billboards spring up proclaiming: ‘Charles Krantz 39 Great Years. Thanks Chuck!’ … and showing his picture (Tom Hiddleston). TV network transmission cuts out and this same image and slogan cuts in. After dark, as Marty stands with Felicia in her street, the lights in the windows go out and are replaced with the glowing image and slogan of the Chuck Krantz billboards. The stars start to go out, one by one.

The second story (Act 2), set on a sunny day, has a girl (The Pocket Queen) set up a drum kit on the street to play compelling, infectious rhythms. Smartly suited Charles Krantz, walking down the street, bursts into a show-stopping dance routine, soon joined by a woman in a swirling red dress (Annalise Basso).

The third story (Act 1) concerns the childhood of Chuck (Cody Flanagan, Benjamin Pajak, Jacob Tremblay), his parents’ early death, his grandmother (Mia Sara), his grandfather (Mark Hamill). The latter keeps the house cupola locked and out of bounds because of ghosts, and talks Chuck out of dancing for a career when accountancy is so much more financially dependable.

Like Act 3’s billboards, these are images of a man, and man is made in the image of God. I think that’s ultimately what this film is about: the image of God imprinted on each and every one of us, in all our glorious diversity.

This is not a horror movie. This is a wonder movie.

Jeremy Clarke is a film critic. jeremycprocessing.com

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This is an extract from an article published in the Issue 5 – 2025 edition of Reform

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