Charlie St. Cloud

Jeri Jacquin, Movie Maven

Opening this Friday from director Burr Steers and Universal Pictures is a look at promises made and love found with “Charlie St. Cloud.”

This film tells the story of Charlie St. Cloud (Zac Efron) and his little brother Sam (Charlie Tahan). Two very close brothers who sail together and play ball together. That is until one night when a car accident breaks the brothers apart.

In that moment everything changes as years go by and Charlie, once headed to college, is not a grounds keeper at the local cemetery. Charlie continues to see Sam and every afternoon at sunset, he meets him in a small cove in the woods to play baseball and talk.

Then, Charlie meets Tess (Amanda Crew), a high school acquaintance who has become quite the sailor. Tess comes back to town with her boat and her coach Tink Weatherbee (Donal Logue) as they plan for her to sail around the world.

Charlie is drawn to Tess but every time he works up the nerve, the day ends and he must meet up with Sam. That is until fate steps in and Charlie discovers the reason for his gift of seeing Sam.

He must choose between life and truly living.

FINAL WORD: Efron is fine as Charlie. He has grown up but this role just isn’t meaty enough for him. The camera spends more time doing close ups on his blue eyes that the audience might forget what the story is about!

Tahan is very cute as the young brother. There isn’t much for him to do here so there isn’t a showcase for his talent.

Crew is fine as Amanda; again, the story being told doesn’t allow enough time for the viewer to care about them. There is a quick cameo by Kim Bassinger as Mom, Claire St. Cloud and Ray Liotta as Florio Ferrente the medic.

Other cast include: Augustus Prew as Alistair Wooley, Dave Franco as Sully, Matt Ward as Connors, and Miles Chalmers as Latham.

TUBS OF POPCORN: I give “Charlie St. Cloud” three tubs of popcorn out of five. The plain truth is that girls and young women will go to see Efron and that’s fine.

The problem here is that the story is fairly predictable. Once that is done there isn’t much reason to continue paying attention to anything other than – Efron. I have seen the potential of this actor from his role in “Me and Orson Wells” but this role fades him back into the handsome lamenting role he needs to break free from. However, this is a gentle story and will win a few hearts.

In the end – life is for the living.