The Life of Chuckthe film starring Tom Hiddleston directed by Mike Flanagan and adapted from Stephen King, was unveiled at TIFF.
After his Fall of the House of Usher for Netflix, the master of fear and tears Mike Flanagan will make his big return to the cinema. Five years after his last feature film, Doctor Sleepthe filmmaker returns with The Life of Chuckdescribed as an apocalyptic tale about the life of one Charles KrantzAdapted from a short novel written by Stephen King, the film is directed by Tom Hiddleston.
The Life of Chuck is Mike Flanagan’s fourth Stephen King adaptation after the excellent Jessiethe unequal Doctor Sleep and his masterpiece Midnight Sermons. On the occasion of the TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival), The Life of Chuck was unveiled for the first time on the big screen. Small point on the first returns :
The Life of Chuck: Mike Flanagan’s return to the cinema
« [Le film de Flanagan] does not answer all the questions, but it makes it all the more a devastating confrontation with oblivion. We feel the weight of the world crashing down on us, but The Life of Chuck “makes all this happen through the beauty of existence”
Chase Hutchinson – TheWrap
“Flanagan’s latest film is simply breathtaking. His best film is a work of profound sincerity and beauty. Somewhere between meditation and revelation, it never succumbs to melodrama or sentimentality. The Life of Chuck is a modern fable told with the skill of a fairy tale, the sheer exuberance of a musical, and yet conveys a sense of wonderment akin to looking up at the sky.”
Jason Gorber – Collider
“A film as sweet as it is frightening, where the anxieties come from the very everyday fears of being alone, apart and of not being able to hold on to the people and memories that matter most.”
Nick Schager – The Daily Beast
“Cynics may find Flanagan’s latest film far too saccharine for their tastes. Lovers of sweetness, meanwhile, may be completely charmed by the intellectual sincerity of The Life of Chuck. »
Katie Rife – IndieWire
“While The Life of Chuck couldn’t be more different from Flanagan’s Midnight Sermons, as the Netflix series is, this latest project proves once again that this creator is a storyteller with a uniquely King-esque style.”
Josh Korngut – Dread Central
“One can admire the ambition of The Life of Chuck while wondering whether this weakly philosophical story needed a big-screen adaptation—or whether reducing its prose to Nick Offerman’s voiceover was the best decision. It’s less an adaptation, in the end, than a glorification of the text put on film by a talented King fan.”
A.A. Dowd – IGN Movies
“While the film’s symbolism is clever enough, the execution is terribly dull, with bits of pseudo-wisdom punctuated by garish piano compositions and life moments narrated with flashy gravity by Nick Offerman.”
Alex Hudson – Exclaim!
The first feedback on The Life of Chuck are therefore generally very positive. English-speaking journalists praise the breadth and sensitivity of the story and the stagingwhich were already the salt of the most beautiful works produced by Mike Flanagan. Some critics, however, reproach a form of silliness in the filmmaker’s pen.
Also, this new feature film would have difficulty finding its own identity behind Stephen King’s legacy. To form your own opinion, you will have to wait a little longer sinceNo French release date has yet been revealed for The Life of Chuck.