Most know Stephen King as today’s most revered horror author, the expert conjurer of the kinds of macabre souls that are embedded in our nightmares — the killer clown Pennywise from “It,” the all-work-and-no-play Jack Torrance from “The Shining” and the wackadoodle fan Annie Wilkes from “Misery.”
Those are but a few of King’s most memorable troublemakers. But the King of Horror occasionally shows his softer, more reflective side. The one that propels “The Life of Chuck,” a moving novella, now a film, taken from his best-selling collection “If It Bleeds.” It relates an introspective story about an ordinary man’s life, but catalogues it in reverse. If you’re a person of a certain age you might immediately assume that sounds like a copycat of David Fincher’s “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” It’s not. Even though both dabble in fantastical elements, they’re quite different in tone and thematic emphasis.
“The Life of Chuck” encourages us to relish those small, impromptu moments and to appreciate the fact that our world contains a multitude of people and places, some met through chance encounters or during major life events. To impart that wisdom on screen, a filmmaker well-versed in King’s prose and themes is essential, and director Mike Flanagan fits the bill. He has shepherded two King novels — “Doctor Sleep” and “Gerald’s Game” — into very good films and is the right person for this adaptation. He’s proved he’s equally at home with the diabolical and the sentimental. Here, he avoids going overboard with either. Flanagan stays in lock-step with King’s wistful parable even though the material presents thorny challenges since it shifts emphasis among various characters. That can be problematic for an on-screen adaptation but Flanagan changes tempo and moods, and does it well.
Act III opens the film and eerily focuses on the titular high school teacher (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his nurse ex-girlfriend (Karen Gillan) as they deal with an impending Armageddon while wondering why there are weird billboards announcing the retirement of Chuck Krantz (Tom Hiddleston) sprouting up all around town.
Act II (easily my favorite) finds businessman Chuck spontaneously breaking out into a crowd-pleasing dance number with a stranger (Annalise Basso) at an outside mall. Act I gives us a youthful Chuck (Jacob Tremblay) who lives with his grandmother (Mia Sara) and his grandfather (Mark Hamill). Act II and Act III are better than Act I, but I still found much to like in Act I, the most nostalgic sequence in here that makes you feel like an awkward kid again.
But it just can’t compare to that dance bit, a jello shot of pure happiness that can chase away the dreariest of days. Better brace yourself since King — as he often does — absolutely devastates you with one simple line, delivered, in this case, by Nick Offerman, who narrates each act. It’s an unexpected emotional wallop that knocks you off your feet. “The Life of Chuck” pricks the soul like that even as it warms our aching hearts.
Contact Randy Myers at soitsrandy@gmail.com.
‘THE LIFE OF CHUCK’
3½ stars out of 4
Rating: R (language)
Starring: Tom Hiddleston, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Mark Hamill,Annalise Basso
Director: Mike Flanagan
Running time: 1 hour, 50 minutes
When & where: Opens June 6 in select theaters; opens wider June 13