Charlie St. Cloud (2010)
Accomplished sailor Charlie St. Cloud has the adoration of his mother Claire and his little brother Sam, as well as a college scholarship that will lead him far from his sleepy Pacific Northwest hometown. But his bright future is cut short when tragedy strikes and takes his dreams with it. After high school classmate Tess returns home unexpectedly, Charlie grows torn between honoring a promise he made four years earlier and moving forward with newfound love. As he finds the courage to let go of the past for good, Charlie discovers the soul most worth saving is his own.
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hyped garbage
Fresh and Exciting
Blistering performances.
Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable
Charlie is a very good looking movie, it's got style, production values, promising performances, a fairly convincing story- line (if a little odd) and a good score - although I thought Charlie, who was supposed to adore his little brother, could have appeared a little less of a bully toward him (modern 'clowning' around I suppose). Otherwise, the relationship was OK. We don't find out too much about what happened to their father and the mother (Kim Basinger) for some unexplained reason goes away early in the story, never to return. She was obviously just a star turn. The movie overall has an otherworldly, haunted feel to it and leaves us wondering if Charlie's grief has left him hallucinating or that he actually can see ghosts? It gets a bit cloying and maybe heads off-track when he sees the 'ghost' of a girlfriend who may, or may not, actually be dead. Anyone liking Ghost-type stories with youth oriented themes should be happy with the outcome but it might not always be pleasing for many others.
Although he's made some odd/silly career choices of late I think Zac Efron is a better actor than people give him credit for, and this film is one he made during the transition from teen movies to leading man.It's not as good a film as it could've been however, and contains lots of elements that we have seen used better elsewhere, but that is not to take away from a good performance from Efron, who manages to find the balance between the romance/drama sides of the role effectively.This re-collaboration with his '17 Again' director, Burr Steers is a decent attempt at a grown up role.
The story builds the background solid enough although takes quite long until we see the main concept settles in. And even after that, the main conflict doesn't even really begin until up about four tenths of the movie's duration. But then again, the movie did nicely in telling a mystery with a cooled down and less tense fashion. The flash backs and scream voices help greatly to hold the whole mystery aura altogether due to the overly dominant drama aspect of it. Also I like the fact that at the end the story is about God's second chance to a selected person. Zac Efron did nice in his role here. He can depict the whole character of a good brother very nicely, although I feel that he may have to work more on his facial expression usage. Amanda Crew balances the movie nicely with her role here, and so did Charlie Tahan.
This is not a great film. But, of course, most films that come out of Hollywood are not great. But this is a good film, and worth watching (depending on your tastes) I had never seen Zac Efron before, and frankly, I wasn't expecting a lot. But he very nicely here. Others must agree...he has five films coming out in 2012! He's not JUST good looking. There's some substance there, and I expect we'll see quite a bit of him over the next few years.I also was not familiar with Amanda Crew, but she was quite good as the love interest in this film. The other actors do their jobs. The script is decent, and there's more to it than a Lifetime movie (which one of our reviewers said).This film won't end up on my DVD shelf, but I'm glad I watched it. It's in that Hollywood middle ground of quality. Worth a watch.