The Life of Chuck us in the running to become one of the best movies of 2025, in my humble opinion. Mike Flanagan is the screenwriter and director of this piece, which is adapted from a novella written by a not-so-new writer named Stephen King. Tom Hiddleston is in the lead role alongside the child actors portraying the younger versions of Charles Krantz. Chiwetel Ejiofor, Karen Gillan, Mia Sara, Mark Hamill, and Annalise Basso are part of the formidable cast.

The story unfolds from the end when Ejiofor’s character, Marty Anderson, notices some strange sights in the world around him. There is a serious increase in natural disasters, and the internet has completely collapsed. There are some peculiar advertisements cropping up depicting a picture of a man named Chuck Krantz, a seemingly normal accountant. As Chuck lies near death from a terminal brain tumor, the stars are blinking out, and the universe seems to be just shutting down.

Then, the story moves earlier in the Chuck’s life to a strange but uplifting impromptu dance performance before a street drummer. Then, Chuck’s childhood is laid out. All of this is helped by a narrator, Nick Offerman, who does a fantastic job of guiding the audience on this strange journey.

The novella is part of a collection by Stephen King entitled If It Bleeds. The film probably follows the source material pretty closely. There are some interesting twists and a few surprises throughout the film

The performances were solid and believable. The significant cast members were well-chosen. There was a kind of interesting subtlety to some of the performances during some of the more emotionally charged moments of the movie.

The film does seem to have a bit of a slow start, but it gets more engaging as it unfolds in its unconventional timeline. The three kids who played Chuck’s adolescent years did a great job as well. Flanagan has done quite a few adaptations of King’s works and seems to be pretty reliable. I do not recall being disappointed in some of his other works.

I have not read the novella, but I imagine that it is an example of how King actually demonstrates some variety in his writings.

I will also admit that I did not really recognize Mark Hamill as Chuck’s grandfather until the end credits came up. I thought he was familiar, but I was not sure why. Hamill is not someone who I consider to be a stellar actor, but he did quite well in this one. Maybe, he has actually gotten better in immersing himself in a role over the years, and I just failed to appreciate it.

Anyway, this film does deserve the acclaim it has received. It is certainly better than most of the nonsense coming out of Hollywood these days.