‘The Life of Chuck’ review: An emotionally charged look at life, loss, and the joy of living
5/5 billboards
When the name Stephen King comes up, many instantly think about his collection of horror stories. But we’re lucky in 2025 with King adaptations and seeing lesser known works get their time to shine. Like Mike Flanagan’s take on the short stories about Charles Krantz.
Chuck (Tom Hiddleston) is a 39 year old man who has billboards all around a small town, thanking him for 39 great years. It confuses people like Marty (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and Felicia (Karen Gillan), who are watching the world around them come to an end but seeing Chuck’s face everywhere. This was our first introduction to Chuck and his story, one that is told to us in segmented chapters.
Much like the short story itself, The Life of Chuck tells three distinct stories that all surround a seemingly unexpecting man. But before I ventured into the film myself, I was warned about the emotional turmoil I’d feel afterward. At first, I was confused. I love Stephen King and his work but I’ve rarely felt the need to cry over the stories he’s told. But then again, I hadn’t yet read the stories on Charles Krantz. I was waiting until I saw the film to dive into them.
What I was gifted with was a movie that inspired me to find the joy in life. I left The Life of Chuck and walked through Manhattan, crying over the beauty around me and the joy of just being able to experience this when people I know and love could no longer do so. And that, to me, is what makes this such a special movie. It’s not about fear like other King stories, it isn’t a typical exploration of grief. It is a movie about celebrating life, even when it comes to an end and that’s beautiful.
Dance when you can
Chuck loves to dance. He’s told like many that he couldn’t make a career out of it when he’s a child, played by Benjamin Pajak. But still, he wants to dance. And getting to see the pure joy he feels dancing around when he finds a busker on the street made tears spring to my eyes with the smile on my face. It was beautiful and all consuming.
And I think that is what makes this such a breathtaking adaptation by Flanagan. He has shown us his love of the darker sides of authors. With The Fall of the House of Usher and The Haunting of Hill House, we were gifted emotional takes on classic stories. But it is The Life of Chuck that showed me that Flanagan just has his finger on the pulse of emotional storytelling.
I never quite knew how these stories were going to connect and I think that’s why I found the ending of the film to be so moving. Chuck is just a simple man who lived life with happiness filling his every move and that final chapter made me think about all of those I’ve lost and their stories that I’ll never get to hear.
The Life of Chuck works as a simple reminder to live life while you can. But I do think that it has a more profound impact on those of us who have experienced a deep grief. Or at least that’s how I felt while walking out into the crisp spring air of the city I love.
It is hard to adapt a Stephen King story and make it something “new” or different but what Flanagan did with The Life of Chuck is nothing short of extraordinary and I do fear that I will cry every time I think about how much joy I find in being alive, all thanks to Charles Krantz and his 39 great years.
(featured image: NEON)
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