Charlie St. Cloud
Zac Efron is at a critical point in his career. He is a hit with teens when he plays a high school basketball star or as a singing anything. But until now, there hasn’t been anything in his career to prove that he has the chops to move past dreamy teen idol into a bona fide actor with any kind of longevity. He takes his first real step with the new film Charlie St. Cloud.
It’s hard to deny it that the camera loves Efron. With Burr Steers--who previously directed Efron in last year’s hit 17 Again--directing, the film has more than a few lingering shots on the actor. A good portion of the film set in the woods and/or sailing on the water, so there are plenty of times where the 22-year-old actor is caught with the sun beaming off of his perfect skin.
Based on the novel The Death and Life of of "Charlie St. Cloud, the drama’s title character ends up turning his back on the bright future he has after a tragic accident kills his younger brother, Sam. Unable to move past the guilt, Charlie spends the next five years working as cemetery grounds keeper and keeping a promise to Sam and meet everyday at sundown to play catch. When a sailing prodigy and former classmate of Charlie’s comes back to town, the two become strangely drawn to each other, and the attraction threatens his ability to keep his promise to Sam.
Despite the strides that Efron makes as an actor and leading man, he is still Troy from High School Musical, and, to a lesser extent, Link from Hairspray. Because of his squeaky clean past life, there’s some cognitive dissonance to seeing the former Disney star getting drunk and wallowing with a bottle of Jack Daniels. After a few more films like Charlie St. Cloud, or the little-seen Me and Orson Welles, that feeling should evaporate.
Charlie St. Cloud does well to cater to its target audience, but it also makes sure to not alienate everyone else. Injecting some humor into the grim tale, the film hits the mark more times than it misses, thanks to an easy to digest, well paced script, and its agreeable leads, Efron and Amanda Crew (Final Destination 3), along with supporting scene stealer Augustus Prew.
If the film has a fatal flaw, it’s that all of the characters are so perfect, and they live in a perfect world. Charlie had an idyllic life before the accident, and afterwards he develops a sixth sense to rival that of Haley Joel Osment in the M. Nigh Shymalan flick. His love interest, Tess, is equally as perfect, if not a little stubborn. Perhaps that it is why screenwriters Craig Pearce and Lewis Colick decided not to delve too much into the guilt that has paralyzed the protagonist or even try to examine the consequences for any of the choices that Charlie has made as a result.
Nor is subtlety one of the film’s strong points. Ray Liotta leads by example as he chews the scenery as the EMT who brings Charlie back to life. The actor comes on too strong in a small role that has, admittedly, the longest-lasting effect of all. Of everyone, Kim Basinger is the only one who is allowed to show nuance in her role. Again, though, she is given far too little screen time. Even less subtle is the major plot twist revealed at the beginning of the third act is easily figured out much earlier in the film.
Charlie St. Cloud is Zac Efron’s coming out as a serious actor. The film is a harmless summer popcorn flick that is meant more to showcase its leading actor’s charisma than to actually attempt to be a masterpiece. In the hands of a less charismatic actor, this movie’s title character wouldn’t be the only one seeing dead things; the film itself would be D.O.A.
