In the past two decades, it’s become a familiar occurrence to see Stephen King’s prose adapted for the screen. However, not all attempts are successful; statistically, only one out of every five or six adaptations truly stands out. More often than not, a successful match happens when the master of melancholic horror, Mike Flanagan, takes on King’s work. Flanagan’s resume includes the underrated “Doctor Sleep,” the uncompromising “Gerald’s Game,” and the heartbreaking “Midnight Mass” (which, while not formally “Salem’s Lot,” shares a similar atmosphere). “The Life of Chuck,” initially seemed like a minor project: a recent short story from the collection “If It Bleeds,” filmed by the director during a break between larger projects—goodbye Netflix, hello Amazon. Yet, this compact and sentimental film feels like an instant classic, deservedly winning the top prize at the Toronto Film Festival.
Karen Gillan as Felicia in “The Life of Chuck”
“Thanks, Chuck!”—it’s hard to imagine a more inappropriate farewell message to the world. As California crumbles from tectonic shifts, Scandinavia sinks beneath the waves, and toll roads disintegrate under car tires in State X (likely Maine, but who knows?), survivors are greeted by billboards featuring an ordinary accountant in a gray suit and black-rimmed glasses (Tom Hiddleston). Teacher Marty Anderson (Chiwetel Ejiofor), despairing of connecting with his students and, more importantly, their parents (and if the internet doesn’t return, neither will the porn sites!), discusses the merits of the unknown Charlie Krantz with his ex-wife, nurse Felicia Gordon (Karen Gillan). They haven’t been together for a long time, but when the world is going to hell, one seeks solace not only in strong alcohol but also in familiar embraces. And yet: who is Chuck Krantz?
Mark Hamill as Albie in “The Life of Chuck”
A Journey Backwards
Marty and Felicia’s reunion is just the beginning, or rather, the end. “The Life of Chuck” moves backward through the plot—from the third act to the first, as the source material dictates. Mike Flanagan treats the text with remarkable care: Nick Offerman recites entire passages from the story, meticulously observing every comma and period. Voice-over narration is often a sign of lazy or uninspired adaptations. However, in the case of “The Life of Chuck,” the focus on literature seems not just a formal obligation but another symptom of the director’s long-standing habit—a love for extended monologues, which are a hallmark of all Flanagan’s series, from “The Haunting of Hill House” to “Midnight Mass.” While watching, it may sometimes seem that “The Life of Chuck” is more Flanagan than King—and not because the King of Horror is primarily known for horror, but because of the ghosts that foretell death. But let’s not jump ahead to the beginning of the first act.
Tom Hiddleston as Chuck in “The Life of Chuck”
A Legacy for the Future
The film was born from the director’s desire to leave a King film as a legacy for his children: not many of the author’s novels could make it onto a list of literature for home reading during the holidays (when will we finally get an adaptation of “Joyland”?). But the prose that requires fewer age restrictions often becomes a universal monument to King’s talent on screens big and small. And one wants to recall not the overused “The Green Mile,” but rather “Hearts in Atlantis” or “Stand by Me.” The director of the latter, Rob Reiner, slightly smoothed out the motif of oppressive fate that inevitably haunts the characters of any King prose when adapting the novella “The Body,” but did not completely exclude the hand of fate (referring to the bad omen if everyone gets tails). Like any skilled craftsman of suspense, King knows that anticipating the inevitable always tickles the nerves much more effectively than a face-to-face confrontation in the finale. The formula works not only with monsters. From the opening credits of “Stand by Me,” we know that Chris Chambers (River Phoenix) is no longer alive, but for now, we can immerse ourselves in memories of the last days of vacation when the energy of youth flowed from the guy. We also know that the strange lodger Ted Brautigan (Anthony Hopkins) will become a friend of the boy Bobby (Anton Yelchin) in “Hearts in Atlantis” for only one summer. And now we know that Charlie Krantz will pass away 39 years later, when the whole world is collapsing.
The Acceptance of Mortality
Another’s death is always a detective story. The details and intonation depend on the plasticity of the genre: will the spring of intrigue be wound up, or will the sadness of loss be charged with buckshot? “The Life of Chuck” pretends to be a fantastic film—an apocalypse where the starry sky falls to earth. A mystical film with the secrets of ghosts who live in the turret of a Victorian house under the roof. A tragic film that states an untimely departure. But Flanagan does much better with a lyrical film about the inevitability and acceptance of death—a stage of growing up that everyone goes through one day (sooner or later). And in the simple, perhaps even somewhat naive, thought that no one is infected with immortality, there is something so soothing and even healing that it is completely impossible to resist the ordinary charm of ordinary Charles Krantz. You want to dance with him.