Has anyone else seen Life of Chuck, the latest Stephen King adaptation done by Mike Flanagan, who also adapted Gerald’s Game and Doctor Sleep. Notably, this movie isn’t horror at all, though.
I’m not sure where I land on this one. It’s cute, very cute. Too cute? Too cheesy?
Some thoughts:
Tom Hiddleston isn’t in this movie much considering they pushed that he is the lead. 10-15 minutes of screen time, maximum. Not a bad thing, but certainly a surprise for me. I thought this was an “Oscar level” movie for him, but he’s just doing a small bit here and only his dance scene required much real effort.
Was the idea that “Act 3 is a universe in Chuck’s head” supposed to be a twist of sorts? I mean, it was extremely clear by early Act 2. I didn’t get what was going on during Act 3, but after we learned that it was in his head in Act 2, I’m not really sure what even to make of it. I guess…neat?
Mark Hamill was great in this and so were the child actors that played Chuck. Hamill is always great and it is nice to see a decent role for him in a feature film.
Shawshank Redemption is a great Stephen King adaptation, another that is not horror. This is nowhere near that level of impact or power.
Wait, were we supposed to believe the cupola has actual supernatural power? Do you really see your own death in it?
It was shown to be in his head middle of Act 3 (the first segment of the film.) I wouldn’t really say it was a twist, just that you spend the first 15 mins wondering what is going on before it makes sense.
That was when we saw Hiddleston in the hospital. I forget how long it was into Act 3, midway point maybe? 15-20 mins?
In Act 2 he is the younger man dancing in the street. There is only a brief moment where he clutches his head, which we know already to be a sign of what is to come later in his life.
I really enjoyed the film. I’d put it as one of the best of the year so far tbh. I do think there is meant to be something supernatural about the cupola room.
It’s funny, I read the book this story came from right at the beginning of covid and yet I had zero memory at all of the story even while watching it!
Finally saw this today and I’m about at the same place Mahaloth is at.
I got that the key point is that the entire universe only exists inside Chuck’s head and that the world began to fall apart as his health declined. But I don’t see how the cupola fits in with this.
One implication of this central idea that I feel the movie didn’t explore was what causation Chuck had. We saw that the entire universe only existed in his mind. Does that mean that his parents and grandparents died because Chuck thought they did? Could Chuck have somehow thought otherwise and lived a different life? Did Chuck himself die at the age of 39 because that’s when he believed he would die? (Maybe that’s the point of the cupola.)
There a scene where Marty was also standing outside the locked cupola. What did that mean? Marty wasn’t living in the Krantz house after Chuck moved out. (I thought there was a mention that the house had been torn down.) Does this mean the cupola somehow moves around from house to house?
And what was the deal of Marty being a teacher at Chuck’s school when Chuck was young? Shouldn’t Marty and Felicia have looked twenty years younger in the school dance scenes.
What was Nick Offerman’s role supposed to be? Was he God? Was he Chuck’s inner consciousness?
The cast was really good. Like Mahaloth, I was surprised at how little screen time Hiddleston had. I think Chiwetel Ejiofor actually had more screen time. There were some appearances that surprised me, like seeing Mia Sara as a grandmother (what do you mean Ferris Bueller was released forty years ago) or Molly Quinn as a mother (again my brain refused to acknowledge that Castle has been off the air for ten years). I don’t blame myself for not recognizing Jacob Tremblay - he was only nine when he was in The Room and he’s seventeen is this movie.