So far, Mike Flanagan (“Oculus”) has made a name for herself in the creepy genre, for example with the Netflix Megahit “Spuk in Hill House” or the “Shining” sequel “Doctor Sleep”. It fits the eye like the fist that the director has chosen another substance of his favorite author Stephen King for his first non-horror project, which is rightly called the king of horror, but has already written fabrics for film classics such as “Stand by Me”, “The Green Mile” and “the convicted”.
And what can we say, it was a great choice: “The Life of Chuck“Is a first -class, gripping drama that his audience quickly pulls into his world and will certainly continue to deal with it for a while after the end of the credits. No wonder that the film at his world premiere at the film festival in Toronto Audience Award Happed-after all, this price predicts relatively reliably whether a film can calculate opportunities in the upcoming Oscar race.
Tom Hiddleston's role is smaller than expected – but he still leaves a huge impression (especially on the dance floor).
In a US city, posters and advertising boards suddenly appear everywhere with the same motif. These thank a certain Charles “Chuck” Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) for “39 great years”. The teacher Marty Anderson (Chiwetel EjioFOR) and the nurse Felicia Gordon (Karen Gillan), who are no longer married, but still understand themselves well, are confused – but at the same time there are completely different worries: what it looks like, the world as they know it, no longer exist for long. There was a government fall in Russia, Germany is only a single volcanic landscape and the bump plague broke out in Asia. In North America, on the other hand, it always rains with a scent -like, which is why 80 percent of California has already sunk in the sea, which has also irrevocably said goodbye to the Internet.
But all of this is probably only the beginning of the apparently unstoppable end of our civilization. And yet Marty keeps wondering who could be this chuck, whose portrait works omnipresent, but nobody seems to know. The Chuck, who works as an ordinary accountant, lost his parents early in an accident. Then he grew up with his lovingly caring grandparents. His grandmother Sarah (Mia Sara) passed on his passion for dancing. Grandpa Albie (Mark Hamill) not only introduced the boy to the art of double bookkeeping, but also tried to protect him from the dark secret in the cordially cleared attic of the family home …
All just no horror
“The Life of Chuck” combines elements of many genres – just no horror. Except for a short supernatural moment towards the end, the work is a coming-of-age story, a sad romance and a disaster film. It also contains parts of a fictitious biopics, a bitter-sweet family comedy, a rat chronicism and, last but not least, an enthusiastic dynamically choreographed and performed musicals with Marvel star Tom Hiddleston (“Thor”) and Annalise Basso (“Snowpiercer”). Above all, the dance sequences will certainly be the moments of “The Life of Chuck”, with which the strip will be identified as the first thing in many years.
Because we experience the sequence of events in three files arranged in reverse order, the story is a kind of puzzle in which the stories of Chuck and its world are only gradually composed. Mike Flanagan took over this structure directly from the template “Chuck's life”. In general, the filmmaker remains very close to the original, which only includes 50 pages, which-together with three other novellas for the first time in 2020 in the Stephen-King-Cammelband “Bloody News” (» Here to prepare for the film from Amazon*) was published.
Director Mike Flanagan with his son Cody Flanagan, who also plays in a small role as a very young chuck.
King fans can therefore be happy that Flanagan has adapted very little, added or exhausted-and if it does, then only to the best of the film. The most striking is a short, tragic-emotion between the teacher character of Chiwetel EjioFor (“12 years a slave”) and the father of a student embodied by David Datmalchian (“Late Night with the Devil”)-and the fact that the dance sequence is not this time by a street musician (Taylor Gordon alias YouTube sensation the pocket queen) is initiated. Otherwise, not only are the narrator's pointed lines (very great in the English -language original: Nick Offerman), but also the dialogues almost one to one from the book.
Flanagan's script and cut – as with many of his previous work – are among the great strengths of the film. The scenes are crisp, directly and presented to the point. None is too long, none too short. Only as much is shown and revealed as we have to see or have to know in order to let our imagination run wild. This succeeds so effectively that we believe in several times what comes next – only in order to be surprised again by means of an ever credible little turn or junction.
A short but brilliant performance by Tom Hiddleston
Chiwetel EjioFor and Karen Gillan (“Guardians of the Galaxy”) are wonderfully together. It quickly becomes clear why their thoroughly sympathetic characters once fell in love with each other, but also why they obviously do much better after the separation. Tom Hiddleston is mentioned first in the PR materials, but has less screen time than some of his co-stars. In addition to EjioFor, this also includes the barely recognizable but brilliantly trumpet Mark Hamill – or even the touching newcomer Benjamin Pajak, who embodies the title figure at a young age. And yet the “Loki” star-with his dance performance and the few moments before and after-succeed in leaving an enormous impression. The guy simply has an irresistible charisma, and it can also move damn well.
However, the three chapters of “The Life of Chuck” do not result in a complete picture – questions remain unanswered, some are indicated, but then not pursued. That may sound a little frustrating, but is always the absolutely right decision. The life of the title character ends without knowing whether and how everything goes out. What is suitable, because nobody will experience from us whether and how the adventure of humanity finally flows into a big happy ending or in a tragedy. Mike Flangan's film is about accepting the life we have as it is and enjoying it at best – as long and as intensely as possible.
Conclusion: Can a melancholy disaster film of all places to offer us all the inevitable end of our existence really a warm and above all life -affirming cinema experience? Yes, he can. With “The Life of Chuck” the two horror experts Mike Flanagan and Stephen King prove this in an impressive charming way. A feel-good championship without any kitsch.