"Charlie St. Cloud" is a delicate film - not flimsy, but fragile - that holds together on the strength of Efron's physical presence and performance. It tells a story about love and loss and the beatings that life and time inflict on poor,
suffering humanity. Last year's "17 Again,"
which Efron made for the same director,
Burr Steers, was like a workout for this film:
It dealt with similar issues and concerns, but operated with the safety hatchof comedy.
"Charlie St. Cloud" has no safety hatch. It just offers the real stuff - heartbreak, exultation, metaphysical mystery - under no cover of self-protective cynicism. It dares to be corny, but isn't. It dares to cross the frontier from painful to so-painful-it's funny, but it never does. All this has a lot to do with Steers' command of tone and of the good taste of the screenplay, based on a novel by Ben Sherwood. But none of this would matter without an actor at the center who, simply in his screen essence, embodies the right qualities of humanity, gravity and aspiration.The film begins the way some movies end, with the climax of an exciting boat race. Charlie, though from a working-class background, is a natural aristocrat, with a gift for boating and a breezy, winning manner. The movie takes pains to establish his relationship with his 11-year-old brother (Charlie Tahan), and in the movie's first minutes, we tend to see Charlie through the younger brother's eyes, as infinitely capable, glamorous and glory bound.
The reversal of fortune comes with brutal suddenness. Suffice it to say that it's the kind of blow that would challenge anyone's emotional capacity to recover. Fifteen minutes into the film, Charlie has lost his ambition, and his life has taken a mystical turn.
Amanda Crew plays a young woman from the same town, who has held onto her boating dreams and is planning a solo run around the world. But if you're expecting the usual thing - the girlfriend who brings our hero back to life - this movie has more integrity and sophistication than that. In Crews, it also finds an ideal co-star for Efron. By becoming the object of Charlie's interest, she confirms our faith in Charlie's seriousness and probity. CHARLIE ST. CLOUD: Official Movie Trailer
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