Last week, Mike Flanagan’s “The Life of Chuck” screened at TIFF. The reviews were fine — Flanagan diehards seem to like it a lot more than critics. I attended close to 20 premieres in these last 10 days, and ‘Chuck’ might have had the most rousing ovation out of all of them.
In an interview with Collider, Flanagan revealed that after reading the Stephen King book, he emailed the author and said, “If I could have a crack at this story, it might be the best movie I’ll ever make.” Now that’s it’s screen, does Flanagan believe “The Life of Chuck” is his best movie?
“Yeah, I do. And I felt that way while we were shooting it, too. I felt that way at the end of the first week,” Flanagan said. “The dance was first, which is a confident way to start an independent film, but for all the reasons you don’t control, that’s how it lands. And we watched this happen for four straight days, and I’ve watched a lot of things happen for many days on a movie — it takes forever to make a movie — but it’s the first time in my life that I loved what was on the monitor just as much, in fact, more, on the last take that we did four days in. I knew that there was something magical happening.”
Based on short stories in King’s 2020 book “If It Bleeds,” the cast includes Tom Hiddleston, Mark Hamill, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, and Jacob Tremblay.
“The Life of Chuck” is told in reverse order, from the end of a man’s life to the beginning. The film starts with the death of Chuck (Tom Hiddleston), then proceeding to showcase moments in his life, culminating with his childhood as an orphan in a supposedly haunted house.
In my review of the film, I called ‘Chuck’ an “oddly creative” film, but also a very “schmaltzy” one. Flanagan just can’t help himself in hammering down his message. There’s a part of me that wishes to embrace ‘Chuck’ a little more, especially in how beautifully constructed the whole film was, but Flanagan just can’t help himself — he’s never been the most subtle of filmmakers.
Flanagan’s previous film was 2019’s “Doctor Sleep”, which was based on King’s follow-up to “The Shining”. He’s well-respected within the horror genre, and has amassed a fairly large fanbase, having also helmed “Oculus,” and “Gerald’s Game.” His best film also happens to be his simplest one, the silent terror of “Hush.”