Review: ‘The Life of Chuck,’ starring Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan and Jacob Tremblay

June 3, 2025

by Carla Hay

Annalise Basso and Tom Hiddleston in “The Life of Chuck” (Photo courtesy of Neon)

“The Life of Chuck”

Directed by Mike Flanagan

Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in the United States, the dramatic film “The Life of Chuck” (based on the 2020 short story of the same name) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with a few African Americans and Latin people) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: The life of accountant Charles “Chuck” Krantz is shown in various stages, before and during an apocalypse.

Culture Audience: “The Life of Chuck” will appeal primarily to people who are fans of the movie’s headliners and are interested in unusual dramas about living life to the fullest.

Mia Sara, Mark Hamill and Cody Flanagan in “The Life of Chuck” (Photo courtesy of Neon)

“The Life of Chuck” is a unique, philosophical drama that shows gloom, doom, hope, and love via a biography of main character Charles “Chuck” Krantz. Tom Hiddleston is not in most of the movie. Benjamin Pajak gives a breakout performance. Hiddleston and Pajak portray the character of Chuck at different stages of Chuck’s life. The scenes of Chuck’s childhood have the most impact in the film.

Written and directed by Mike Flanagan, “The Life of Chuck” is based on a short story of the same name that was in Stephen King’s 2020 short story collection “If It Bleeds.” Even though horror master King authored the source material, “The Life of Chuck” is not a horror story, although there are scenes in the movie about an apocalypse and some supernatural elements. “The Life of Chuck” had its world premiere at the 2024 Toronto International Film Festival, where it won the People’s Choice Award, the festival’s top prize.

“The Life of Chuck” (which takes place in an unnamed U.S. city) is told in three acts, in reverse chronological order. Act Three, titled “Thanks Chuck,” shows what happens during an apocalypse and how the survivors keep seeing the signs, billboards and other things about Chuck. Act Two, titled “Buskers Forever,” is a glimpse into a day in the life of Chuck when he was 39 years old. Act Three, titled “I Contain Multitudes,” chronicles certain parts of Chuck’s childhood, from the ages of 7 to 17 years old.

Hiddleston portrays Chuck at 39 years old. Cody Flanagan has the role of Chuck at 7 years old. Pajak depicts Chuck from the ages of 10 to 12. Jacob Tremblay has the role of Chuck at age 17. All of them are convincing in portraying the evolution of Chuck. However, Pajak’s performance, as well as the movie’s “I Contain Multitudes” section, tie everything together will resonate the most with viewers. Nick Offerman is the voice of the movie’s unseen narrator.

The apocalyptic scenes are actually the most boring and most confusing of the movie. It’s shown in news reports that over a period of a little more than a year, Earth has experienced an environmental apocalypse that has killed millions of people. Many of these deaths are suicides. Some populated parts of the world have become giant sinkholes or has land that has sunk into oceans. Mass communication services, starting with the Internet, gradually stop working.

An English literature teacher named Marty Anderson (played by Chiwetel Ejiofor), who works at a middle school, still wants to live his life as normally as he can, until he faces the reality that things will never be “normal” again for him and many other people. Marty tries to reconnect with his ex-wife Felicia Gordon (played by Karen Gillan), who works as a nurse in an emergency hospital room. Felicia sees firsthand several of the depressing deaths that have become common during this apocalypse.

Marty has brief conversations with various characters who have cameos in the movie. These characters who appear briefly in the story to talk with Marty include Gus (played by Matthew Lillard), a neighbor who works in utilities maintenance; Sam Yarborough (played by Carl Lumbly), a stranger whom Marty meets on a street; Josh (played by David Dastmalchian), a forlorn parent of one of Marty’s students; and Iris (played by Violet McGraw), a roller-skating adolescent who lives near Felicia.

Throughout this apocalypse, people see signs, billboards, video displays and even a message written in the sky that say “Charles Krantz. 39 Great Years, Thanks, Chuck!” A photo of Chuck is also part of these displays. No one seems to know who Chuck is. But there’s a clue about what’s going on when Marty and Felicia talk about what it would look like if the history of Earth had been condensed into one calendar year.

As an adult, Chuck meets a heartbroken young woman named Janice Halliday (played by Annalise Basso), who was recently dumped by an ex-boyfriend. Chuck and Janice share a memorable spontaneous dance on the street, as a drummer busker named Taylor Franck (played by the Pocket Queen, also known as Taylor Gordon) provides the music. The interaction between Chuck, Janice, and Taylor is a chance encounter between three strangers who find a brief respite to their personal troubles.

The childhood years of Chuck show his life after he became an orphan when he was about 7 years old. His parents and unborn baby sister were killed in a car accident. Chuck then went to live his grandfather Albie Krantz (played by Mark Hamill) and Sarah Krantz (played by Mia Sara), who are the parents of Chuck’s deceased father. Albie (who is an accountant) and Sarah (who inspires Chuck’s interest in dancing) are loving and supportive of each other and of Chuck.

Albie has one major strict rule for Chuck: The cupola room in their Victorian-style house is off-limits and cannot be opened. The room is padlocked from the outside. Albie has the key, but he won’t tell Chuck why Chuck is forbidden to go in the cupola room or even open the door. Meanwhile, lonely Chuck finds artistic passion and acceptance in an after-school dance class, where he impresses the dance teacher Miss Rohrbacher (played by Samantha Sloyan) and a fellow student named Cat McCoy (played by Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), who’s considered the best dancer in the class.

“The Life of Chuck” has many moments of mystery that will intrigue or frustrate viewers. There are huge parts of Chuck’s life that aren’t seen or explained. For example, his wife Virginia “Ginny” Krantz (played by Q’orianka Kilcher) and Brian Krantz (played by Antonio Raul Corbo) briefly appear in the movie, with only minimal hints of what Chuck was like as a husband and father. Some of “The Life of Chuck” tends to wander with subplots that don’t really lead anywhere. Other scenes in the movie are absolutely riveting and are the heart and soul of “The Life of Chuck.” Although part of the movie is about a deadly apocalypse, the ultimate message of the film is life-affirming and hopeful about humanity.

Neon will release “The Life of Chuck” in select U.S. cinemas on June 6, 2025, with an expansion to more U.S. cinemas on June 13, 2025. A sneak preview of the movie was shown in U.S. cinemas on June 2, 2025.

Copyright 2017-2025 Culture Mix
CULTURE MIX