Tom Hiddleston leads the cosmic puzzle that is 'Life of Chuck'

"Life of Chuck" is a peculiar movie with grandiose ambitions. It teases out a cosmic mystery about life and some guy named Charles Krantz (Tom Hiddleston ) in a story told in reverse chronological order that gets smaller and smaller with each act. This is a story that begins with the apocalypse and ends with a middle school dance. Well, kind of. I'm not out to spoil (much) here.

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It's based on a novella by Stephen King (part of his “If It Bleeds” collection of stories) and adapted by filmmaker Mike Flanagan, who was also behind “Gerald's Game” and “Doctor Sleep.” This, however, is not a horror movie, though there are spooky elements laden with ominous ambiguity. There are also big, joyful dance numbers, a fair share of cynical jokes, whimsical narration from Nick Offerman, earnest conversations about the end of the world and plenty of references to Walt Whitman's “Song of Myself” - in particularly “I am large, I contain multitudes.” That is most movingly conveyed in a sweet scene with a teacher (Kate Siegel) and a middle school aged Chuck (Benjamin Pajak) on the last day of school.