The Life of Chuck

"Cynics will likely find Flanagan's latest far too saccharine..."

"So endearingly sincere that only the hardest of cynics won’t be won over."

"May still leave in its wake the desired upbeat, life-hugging effect, but it ultimately proves to be an ephemeral one..."

"Doesn’t escape the mires of unpersuasive pop psychology."

"A lumpy, eclectic film, one grasping for deep meaning but never quite reaching it."

"Might be that kind of affirming hug of a film that someone is craving."

"In the spirit of schadenfreude, I’d have happily watched a whole additional hour of this Chuck-driven armageddon."

"Will forever be known as the movie featuring The Dance of Tom."

"Some fairy tales are better left on the page."

"Not so much about raging at the dying of the light but about how we embrace the inevitability of death and the wonder of what comes before."

"Urging us to feel something without ever giving us enough for any of it to sink in."

"Works too hard for its warm fuzzies."

"Aims at giving us the warm fuzzies-in-this-dark-and-dismal-world, and succeeds, more or less."

"A duller kind of strange."

"Feels like the coziest of blankets enveloping you in the theater."

"Feels endearing despite its slips."

"The story gets sunnier, but the knowledge of what's to come clouds your reaction."

"Heady, elegiac, and rather philosophical."

"Sweeping in sentiment and surgical in intent."

"No more than a nostalgia tranquilizer."

"The imaginary world that dominates The Life of Chuck is utterly devoid of personality."

"Maudlin and pessimistic."