Director:
Burr Steers
Writers:
Craig Pearce
Lewis Colick (screenplay)
Ben Sherwood (novel)
(Too) handsome baby faced teen star with dramatic look into the distance followed by a quote ''Life is for living''. Whether you indulge in watching a movie with or without these prejudices, you'll anyway reach the same conclusion.
Plot story: Charlie St. Cloud unintentionally caused the death of his younger brother Sam. He couldn't overlook that so he found a job at the cemetery where his brother was buried. As he promised to him, they were meeting everyday at the same place after the sound of firing cannon.
The movie is based on the same story which we didn't read but despite that it was not difficult to conclude that this story was more situable for literature than cinematography.
The director, Burr Steers, again took young actor Zac Efron under his wing. They worked together in Seventeen Again, which is far better than this one. Still, we must admit that is a wise move since Zac, recently unknown to the audience, is successfully building his career. He's very hot, blue eyed and charismatic beauty so there's no doubt many young schoolgirls will rush to cinema to see new Zac Efron movie. However, he does not deserve to be exclusively labeled as aesthetically pleasing part of the movie because it is the one who is the strongest link here - both aesthetic and histrionic. Though he hasn't got lots of movies in his background, here he proves the ability of bearing comedy as much as drama where he does not deliver the exact same level of performance. Unfortunately, this movie still happened to be kinda waste of the talent so we sincerely hope to see him in the more "serious" roles. We're not trying to say that Charlie St. Cloud is not a demanding character but the movie is too much formulaic and cliche so that is not the ONE but one of THE.
It's silly how Kim Basinger and Ray Liotta, undeniably exquisite actors, got roles which are reduced to the minimum of minimums. Amanda Crew (Tess Carroll) and Charlie Tahan (Sam St. Cloud) were also good, so the cast works just fine. Screenplay doesn't. So, again and again we encounter the ''I see dead people'' motive and the story is engineered as the Ghost Whisperer episode. The only person missing in all this was Jennifer Love Hewitt. We think that cinematography is saturated with these themes.
The story IS touching and Zac successfully conveys the feeling of sorrow and pain but it's still not enough to create a tear jerking movie (except maybe to people who survived the same ordeal).
Charlie St. Cloud movie works it's ass off to be melodramatic and inspiring but the result is not much more different than already seen, full of cliches, scheme which will more likely make you roll eyes than cry. Not even to mention that again we have the situation where a teenager quotes big writer (in this case E.E.Cummings) as in, for example, The Last Song. Just as there, as an extra you get the other teenager (the significant other) who immediately recognizes the quotation. It's praiseworthy when young people are conscious about the world of literature, but come on.. If you manage to find one, in a sample of ten average teenagers, who would recognize it (and let alone two of them in the same sample) - we'll pay you a beer.
Of course, there are many more heartbreaking moments and messages. The good news is that there's the twist in the movie and the bad news about it is that you won't be that much excited it since it's nothing you won't have already figured out. Naturally, we've seen worse movies than this one. In fact, this is not a bad movie, but it's only that. Not a bad movie. Don't expect any laughs or cries which consequently lead to the result of watchable, feel good movie (with nice camerawork) that won't make you think about it later and you will soon forget you even watched it. The younger population may even like it, but only because of the main actor or if they missed Ghost or even Just Like Heaven. If you're not staunch fan of Zac Efron, better watch those instead.
Score:
Liz: 5/10
Kyle: 4/10
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