The Life of Chuck

Whether it’s learning to appreciate the little things or embracing human connection and shared memories, The Life of Chuck has plenty of deep lessons to impart.

That’s both a blessing and a curse for this moderately poignant adaptation of a Stephen King novella from director Mike Flanagan (Doctor Sleep). It’s ambitious yet muddled, and wise yet didactic.

Too often relying on earnest sentimentality in place of profound thoughtfulness, the genre hybrid yanks aggressively at the heartstrings while pondering some weighty questions through a surreal exploration of the average life of an anonymous man.

The wistful story is structured in three distinct but intertwined chapters straddling reality and fantasy, told in reverse. The first is set amid accumulating natural catastrophes and man-made catastrophes that have put Earth on the brink of extinction.

It loosely follows a teacher (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and his ex-wife (Karen Gillan) as they navigate the impending apocalypse, all the while wondering why their panicking suburb is inundated with advertisements thanking some guy named Charles Krantz for “39 great years” without further context.

The opening chapter balances wry humor with tragedy while trying to promote hope and humanity in the face of dread and despair.

Rewinding to the second act (wonderfully narrated by Nick Offerman), we finally meet the aforementioned Chuck (Tom Hiddleston), an accountant trying to find fulfillment while suffering from debilitating headaches.

The least compelling of the trio comes last, or first in chronological order, offering a coming-of-age drama about Chuck (Jacob Tremblay) as a precocious orphan being raised by his feisty Jewish grandfather (Mark Hamill), whose ornate house includes a mysteriously locked cupola.

As it unspools its pearls of wisdom, Flanagan’s screenplay suffers from awkward transitions between unabashed joy and deep sorrow, hindering either emotion from becoming more impactful in the translation from page to screen.

The tonally uneven film is best in its offbeat moments of quirky peculiarity, a few of which showcase Chuck’s affinity for spontaneous dancing or his ability to charm complete strangers.

Although episodic by nature, the film benefits from a standout cast and some stylish visual flourishes. Yet while amusing in spurts and unsettling in others, it’s overall more gimmicky than perceptive.

Aiming to be a life-affirming movie about morality and mortality, The Life of Chuck reminds us that everyone is worth remembering — just not necessarily every movie.

Rated R, 110 minutes.