Worth seeing:

as an uplifting, life-affirming but ultimately rather underwhelming Stephen King adaptation, which never quite achieves the ambitious target it aims for

Director:	Mike Flanagan
Featuring:	Tom Hiddlestone, Benjamin Pajak, Carl Lumbly, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Cody Flanagan, Jacob Tremblay, Karen Gillan, Mark Hamill, Matthew Lillard, Mia Sara
Length:	111 minutes
Certificate:	15
Country:	US
Released:	20th August 2025

WHAT’S IT ABOUT?

In a story told in three acts, we start with Act 3, in which we meet teacher Marty (Chiwetel Ejiofor) who wants to reconcile with his ex-wife Felicia (Karen Gillan), a nurse at the local hospital. They turn to each other as natural disasters occur around the world and the internet crashes globally. Billboards pop up around town, thanking Chuck Krantz for “39 Great Years” – but neither of them knows who Chuck Krantz is or what he spent 39 years doing. But as the world – the universe – seems to be coming to an end around them, Marty and Felicia try to console each other.

In Act 2, we meet Chuck (Tom Hiddleston) – an accountant in his late 30s, attending a professional conference. During a break, he sees a drummer busking in the street and starts to dance to the rhythm – initially alone, but soon he pulls in a woman from the crowd that’s gathered to watch. The dancing brings joy to those around them, but a headache starts to trouble him and the dancing comes to an end.

Finally, Act 1 introduces us to Chuck as a child. He moves to live with his grandparents when his parents die. His grandmother Sarah (Mia Sara) teaches him to love dancing, while his grandfather Albie (Mark Hamill) teaches him to love mathematics. At school, his English teacher helps him understand the phrase “I contain multitudes” from a poem by Walt Whitman. When Sarah dies, Chuck throws himself into his dancing – and at the end of term dance, all the teachers watch him perform – including Marty.

WHAT’S IT LIKE?

Writer-director Mike Flanagan does his best to bring this Stephen King short story to the big screen in the same reverse three-act structure as the source material, retaining much of the literary feel through Nick Offerman’s narration.

As might be evident from the plot summary, it’s initially very confusing to try to work out what’s going on, but there’s one particular exchange between the young Chuck and his English teacher which suddenly jolts all the pieces into position.

But even before this, the fate of Chuck himself is clear, which makes much of what follows lack dramatic consequences as the end point of the story is disclosed, leaving only how we got there as the question.

Any sense of drama is also curtailed by the fact that there are no villains in the story, other than fate itself, which, at times, makes it feel a little mawkish – but what for some might feel saccharine, to others is uplifting and life-affirming.

But for a story of such ambition, it feels oddly slight, inconsequential and underwhelming, despite trying to be a personal tale that also tries to be an existential examination of existence itself.

Full of warmth, style, heart and positivity, the least you can take away from the Life of Chuck is the drive to take life by the horns and enjoy it while you can.