Premiere Review: Charlie St. Cloud
Trying to figure out what Zac Efron's newest film, Charlie St. Cloud, will be like? Look no further than this early review from Premiere.com: Movies. Hollywood. Fantastic. Premiere.
The Pitch: Only love can save a working-class townie who gives up a sailing scholarship to work at the cemetery where his little brother is buried
Alternate Pitch: Only love can save a working-class townie slowly being driven mad by the ghost of his dead brother.
The Highs: If you're a fan of Zac Efron, Charlie St. Cloud is a must-see, even if some will be bored or disturbed by watching their angelic song-and-dance man in a ghost story. Don't be fooled by how the movie is being packaged, as it's not a standard boy-meets-girl snifflepalooza. The movie is an admirably spooky teen drama about a young man who can't let go of his dead little brother, and vice versa.
But, first and foremost, Charlie St. Cloud is an aging teen heartthrob's big-budget audition for the role of "Adult Movie Star." As the title character, Zac Efron attempts to put away childish things and generally succeeds. Efron performs the full range of human emotions with Olympic precision. His eyes glisten with sadness, glow with happiness, and fog over when brooding. In one scene he's a charismatic dork. In another scene, he's a dreamy romantic and a few minutes later he's a shirtless hero.
He's a talented actor, but an obvious manic overachiever. Like a local high school musical star who spends Saturday nights practicing dancing, singing, and acting to make sure he or she is a "triple threat." The truth is, he doesn't have to work so hard. He's a natural movie star; a warm and charismatic mix of noble Kryptonian and sexually nonthreatening harem eunuch.
The rest of the cast, including cameos from Kim Basinger and Ray Liotta, serves their purpose, which is not to upstage Efron.
The Lows: The movie commits to its bizarre premise early, and then relaxes its grip, possibly to allow for the inevitable, and mandatory, happy ending.
By the closing credits, you'll forget to ask yourself the important and existential questions that the movie asks. The main question being "If you make a promise to play catch every sundown with the ghost of your little brother, where does he go for the rest of the day you're not playing catch? The icy darkness of limbo?"
Ultimately, the reason Charlie St. Cloud loses its momentum is because a love triangle between a grieving man, a beautiful woman from his past, and a spectral shade is just too strange. Not to mention, such stories can't end well, or at least, without melancholia. In the case of Charlie St. Cloud, such an ending would have made this movie a cult classic. But cults are a niche market.
Mainstream audiences will still scratch their heads. In the flick, Charlie has abandoned all of his dreams in order to keep his supernatural promise to play catch every day. So the main conflict is his little brother, an obstacle between Charlie and actual happiness. Efron is, basically, being kept a prisoner by a force from beyond the grave. During one scene, Charlie's little brother Sam, played hyper-preciously by Charlie Tahan, is so upset that Charlie might want a normal life, that I half expected the character to morph into a demon and explode into a cloud of brimstone.
But, were heart strings pulled? There are frequent attempts to emotionally molest the audience, yes. Let's just say that after the movie, I texted my little brother.
Final Thoughts: Charlie St. Cloud is too corny for cynical teenagers, and too intense for young children, since both death and implied sexual activity are plot points. There's very little to hold an adult's attention, even though the movie has a zippy pace. But for fans of Zac Efron, it really is a must see, a glimpse at his future of gentle romantic comedies and sensitive dramas with timely morals. He might as well change his name to Sanford Bullock.
