`Charlie': Sometimes You Should Mess With Perfection
Charlie St
"Charlie St. Cloud " like its star Zac Efron  is a gorgeous  unblemished thing. Both would be much improved with a tiny flaw or two.
 What's more  the 22-year-old (of "High School Musical" fame) is turning into a pretty decent actor. As the titular Charlie  a young man whose guilt and grief over his 11-year-old brother's death _ in a car Charlie was driving _ has paralyzed him emotionally  Efron works hard to make you believe his character's angst. The scenes in which he plays catch with dead brother Sam (Charlie Tahan)  with whom Charlie has a daily play date in the woods  are particularly touching. And when Tess (Amanda Crew)  a former high school classmate of Charlie's  tries to reconnect with him  Charlie's reluctance to allow himself real-world pleasure is almost palpable.
Charlie has a daily play date in the woods  are particularly touching. And when Tess (Amanda Crew)  a former high school classmate of Charlie's  tries to reconnect with him  Charlie's reluctance to allow himself real-world pleasure is almost palpable.
 From the insistently gooey score that pushes and prods you to feel Charlie's pain  to the sparkling cinematography that turns the fictional Pacific Northwest setting of Quincy Bay into an ad for a vacation time share  the movie has a machine-extruded gloss that makes it harder  not easier  to swallow its difficult emotions. You'll want to buy into them _ Efron is a very good salesman _ but they're so smooth and creamy going down  they barely register as feelings at all.
 Based on the novel "The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud " by Ben Sherwood  the story itself has a predictable arc. A promising high school sailor with an athletic scholarship to Stanford  Charlie has put his plans _ and his life _ on hold after Sam dies  taking on a job as cemetery caretaker so that he can be near his brother  with whom he has a pact to meet every day at sunset. Five years after the accident  when Charlie and Tess start falling for each other  Charlie's connection to Sam  or Sam's spirit  is threatened.
 has a pact to meet every day at sunset. Five years after the accident  when Charlie and Tess start falling for each other  Charlie's connection to Sam  or Sam's spirit  is threatened.
 Sam  of course  is a walking metaphor for survivor's guilt. CharlieCharlie himself almost died in the accident but was resuscitated by a paramedic (Ray Liotta)  whose defibrillator has left scars on Charlie's chest that serve as constant reminders. The self-help-heavy script includes such aphorisms as "You hurt because you're alive" (courtesy of Sam's ghost) and "At some point  we all have to let go" (courtesy of Tess).
 Those lines will come as no surprise. What will come as a surprise is something of a plot twist having to do with Charlie's ability to "see" dead people  a result of his having visited the other side. In addition to Sam  Charlie also communes  briefly  with the ghost of another old school chum (Dave Franco)  who was killed in Iraq.
"[TGT] " like [TGT] star Zac Efron  is a gorgeous  unblemished thing. Both would be much improved with a tiny flaw or two.
 What's more  the 22-year-old (of "High School Musical" fame) is turning into a pretty decent actor. As the titular Charlie  a young man whose guilt and grief over his 11-year-old brother's death _ in a car [TGT] was driving _ has paralyzed [TGT] emotionally  Efron works hard to make you believe [TGT] character's angst. The scenes in which [TGT] plays catch with dead brother Sam (Charlie Tahan)  with whom Charlie has a daily play date in the woods  are particularly touching. And when Tess (Amanda Crew)  a former high school classmate of [TGT]'s  tries to reconnect with [TGT]  [TGT]'s reluctance to allow [TGT] real-world pleasure is almost palpable.
Charlie has a daily play date in the woods  are particularly touching. And when Tess (Amanda Crew)  a former high school classmate of Charlie's  tries to reconnect with him  Charlie's reluctance to allow himself real-world pleasure is almost palpable.
 From the insistently gooey score that pushes and prods you to feel Charlie's pain  to the sparkling cinematography that turns the fictional Pacific Northwest setting of Quincy Bay into an ad for a vacation time share  the movie has a machine-extruded gloss that makes it harder  not easier  to swallow its difficult emotions. You'll want to buy into them _ Efron is a very good salesman _ but they're so smooth and creamy going down  they barely register as feelings at all.
 Based on the novel "The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud " by Ben Sherwood  the story itself has a predictable arc. A promising high school sailor with an athletic scholarship to Stanford  Charlie has put his plans _ and his life _ on hold after Sam dies  taking on a job as cemetery caretaker so that he can be near his brother  with whom he has a pact to meet every day at sunset. Five years after the accident  when Charlie and Tess start falling for each other  Charlie's connection to Sam  or Sam's spirit  is threatened.
 has a pact to meet every day at sunset. Five years after the accident  when Charlie and Tess start falling for each other  Charlie's connection to Sam  or Sam's spirit  is threatened.
 Sam  of course  is a walking metaphor for survivor's guilt. CharlieCharlie himself almost died in the accident but was resuscitated by a paramedic (Ray Liotta)  whose defibrillator has left scars on Charlie's chest that serve as constant reminders. The self-help-heavy script includes such aphorisms as "You hurt because you're alive" (courtesy of Sam's ghost) and "At some point  we all have to let go" (courtesy of Tess).
 Those lines will come as no surprise. What will come as a surprise is something of a plot twist having to do with Charlie's ability to "see" dead people  a result of his having visited the other side. In addition to Sam  Charlie also communes  briefly  with the ghost of another old school chum (Dave Franco)  who was killed in Iraq.