Charlie St. Cloud | Review
Zac Efron is a good actor. He’s matured and grown so much over the years, especially from his ‘High School Musical’ days. Since then he’s starred in ‘Hairspray’, which was an awesome musical remake; ‘17 Again‘, which I really liked; and ‘Me and Orson Welles’, which I haven’t seen yet, but has gotten remarkable reviews. Efron is a charming actor, and the roles he chooses can do nothing but enhance his acting career. ‘Charlie St. Cloud’ reunites director Burr Steers (director of ’17 Again’) with Zac Efron. Like I said, I really enjoyed ’17 Again’, so I was even more excited to see ‘Charlie St. Cloud’.
‘Charlie St. Cloud’ involves the bond of two brothers – Charlie, whom is graduating high school and has a scholarship to Stanford, and Sam, his 12-year-old-ish younger brother. The two brothers are extremely close. They spend lots of time together, and Charlie promises Sam that they’ll play baseball every day until he goes to Stanford. Unfortunately, Charlie and Sam get into an accident, and Sam passes away. Charlie died with Sam, too, but he was revived by the paramedics. Since Charlie was technically dead for those few moments, he’s now gained the ability to interact with his dead brother – he’s able to keep the promise he made to Sam before the accident.
What I’ve just explained occurs within the first 30 minutes of the film. That’s the most emotional part of ‘Charlie St. Cloud.’ I found myself slightly teary-eyed. The rest of the film isn’t as emotional as I had hoped, or as much as the trailers made it seemed out to be. Things happen too fast in the film. We know that there’s going to be a romantic aspect to ‘Charlie St. Cloud’, as seen from the trailers, and that it would cause a problem for Charlie’s relationship with his dead brother. However, that conflict wasn’t dealt with enough – it wasn’t as emotional nor deep enough. It felt more like: (1) Charlie plays baseball with his dead brother every day, keeping his promise. (2) Charlie falls for a girl, Tess (Amanda Crew), and starts to have a relationship with her. (3) Charlie’s brother, Sam, gets mad at Charlie for slowly forgetting him and his promise. (4) Charlie now must choose between Tess or Sam. I swear, the pacing of the film felt that fast and abrupt. There’s not enough time in between each of those events for us to feel the emotion or even care much; I did care, but barely.
‘Charlie St. Cloud’ actually has a lot of supernatural elements to it, considering the main character can interact with his dead brother. There’s more supernatural elements than I had expected. The biggest supernatural moment occurs in the film’s third act, where we discover a big and unexpected twist. I was ‘wow-ed’ by the twist. The twist caught me completely off-guard, and it was a really good twist. Now, I wouldn’t compare it to the awesome twists from ‘Inception‘ or ‘Salt‘, but the one in ‘Charlie St. Cloud’ is solid and works for the film.
This plot twist in ‘Charlie St. Cloud’, however, is where I found myself confused and have mixed-feelings about the film. The twist wasn’t the bad part. The events and circumstances that caused the twist to be discovered is what I was confused about. I can’t really say anything else to further explain what I mean without spoiling the film. If you see the film, I’m sure you’ll know what I’m talking about.
The actors and actresses in ‘Charlie St. Cloud’ are very strong and are able to keep the film interesting, even during the slow and slightly boring parts. Zac Efron does a wonderful job at portraying an emotional and disconnected character. Charlie Tahan is convincing as a loving younger brother. Amanda Crew is a strong actress opposite Efron; the two of them have believable chemistry. Heck, even Charlie’s paramedic, whom has a small, but important role, is portrayed by a good actor – Ray Liotta.
For the most part, I enjoyed ‘Charlie St. Cloud.’ It’s a good supernatural-romantic-drama film. The film’s odd mixture of genres didn’t bother me at all; the technique just wasn’t there. ‘Charlie St. Cloud’ is a strong and good movie, with a nice twist and strong leads, just with a slightly confusing aspect to it. The theme the film presented is also something to live by: “Live your life – for something.”