Insignificance: "The Life of Chuck"

The Life of Chuck finds two feted horror storytellers attempting something nice for a change. (It may in fact be the most diverse item in the current horror renaissance: a film so nice you could happily take your mum, dad and gran along.) Stephen King (who did the short story) and Mike Flanagan (who writes and directs this adaptation) are creatives who've come through the past decade of American life relatively unscathed, and with the psychic energy required to undertake such boosterism; here, they set out to inhabit the planet's last days without showing us the worst of it, and to encourage those of us watching on from the cheap seats to count our blessings and take solace in the sight of regular folks looking out for one another. They open with what's chronologically the film's third and final act, set in the very dog days of it all. Chiwetel Ejiofor, face weighed down by a sorrowful beard, is the smalltown teacher who's stuck to his task, no matter that there doesn't seem to be all that much future to prepare his charges for. (Appearing in that fourth Bridget Jones movie would have been a useful rehearsal.) Karen Gillan is his ex, a nurse working as part of a so-called "suicide squad", working to patch up those who've already called time and elected to slit their wrists; Matthew Lillard is a perky chipmunk in overalls, the Disney sitcom neighbour of the Apocalypse. Theirs are fraying, last-gasp connections and reconnections, because phone reception is patchy and the Internet's down (another notable cameo: David Dastmalchian as a jilted husband who spends parent-teacher night lamenting that he can't access Pornhub, which may just be Keir Starmer's fault). Step forward old media, in the form of mysterious billboards, skywriting and graffiti celebrating the 39 years on this Earth of one Charles Krantz - and here's where Tom Hiddleston, the movie's blond-haired, blue-eyed poster boy, comes in. Is he Jesus? Hope itself? Or is he just a guy like any other, himself not long for this world?

The question of which Stephen King we're getting is more obvious and easier to answer. This is demonstrably the metaphysical King who provided the raw material for Stand by Me and The Shawshank Redemption, a writer who's forsaken spirits in favour of the spiritual, who's survived several brushes with the Annie Wilkeses of this world while still retaining a core belief in the goodness of people. If you prefer that King, then there's a good chance you'll like at least some of this; the many audience awards Chuck has accumulated since its Toronto premiere last year would indicate plenty of folks do. The end of the world is but a startpoint here; things can only get better. Subsequent acts shuffle back through a small, cosmically humdrum, very American life to suggest creating moments and touching people (not like that, Gregg) are what matters. Emotionally, it's a consolation, yet narratively this felt to me like an enforced, never wholly persuasive tactical retreat. The morose adults of the film's first and most affecting movement are wiped out, replaced initially by big kids (dancing Hiddleston) and then just kids (and movie kids at that). The key to a good life is revealed as... moonwalking and mathematics? You can spot why the studios were drawn to this material: it's the gospel according to accountants and theatre kids, penned by an author whose sensibility was largely shaped by the twinned boomtimes of the 1950s and 1980s. (Between the theme tune to John Mulaney's Netflix show and the "Dance Hall Days" revival here, who knew Wang Chung would become the official sound of the end of the world?) The Life of Chuck comes from that part of Hollywood that still believes in people and emotions, that knows however fucked things are out there, what's in here (our heads, hearts and homes) remains worthy of filming and celebrating. That's reason to remain reasonably cheerful. But this film blands itself out to the point of near-instantaneous insignificance: I might have felt it more if it didn't so resemble a Live Laugh Love trinket converted into flickering images.

The Life of Chuck is now playing in cinemas nationwide.