Universal Pictures, Relativity Media, Marc Platt Productions
Zac Effron, Charlie Tahan, Amanda Crew, Augustus Prew, Dolan Logue, Kim Basinger, Ray Liotta
Based on the book, “The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud”, this is mixture of genre’s in one. Most of all, it’s a ghost story, but it’s also a romance, a tearjerker, heartwarming, has many redeeming qualities, and is a parable of the importance of living your life to it’s fullest. The book title is very clever, and I’m surprised why they didn’t use that title for the movie, as it’s more appropriate. Charlie certainly died, literally and figuratively, before he lived.
Charlie loves his little brother. Some people complained that the relationship between Charlie and Sam is not well enough developed, but then you don’t know brothers very well. There are two kinds of big brothers, the ones who ditch their little brother and don’t want to be bothered, and the ones who spend time and attention on them. Charlie was the second type. Charlie loves his life, and is looking forward to a sailing scholarship at Stanford next year. He’s a winner. Suddenly, as life sometimes does, everything is taken from him. At this point, he has to determine how to get it all back again, or is he going to wallow in self pity forever. Again, sadly, Charlie is the latter.
There is a superficial ghost story going on at the surface of this movie, but the real meat is deeper. The further you look, the more you’ll find. Now this “superficial” story, the ghost story part, is not trivial, and is really riveting, but there’s much more to learn deeper in the unfolding of the story.
One fairly minor role is Ray Liotta as the EMT who brings Charlie back from the dead. Later as he has his own troubles, he still finds time to give Charlie the missing pieces for him to reclaim his life.
There are some things that are left unexplained in this movie. Maybe someone who has read the book, can fill us in on some of the missing pieces. In fact, this may be one of those films that inspires and touches me so much that I have to go out and get the book to get more of the story. For one thing, Charlie’s mom takes off and goes to Portland. Why? Why did she leave him? I have a feeling there is much more to that story that isn’t included in the movie. Secondly, Charlie is given a pendant. He assumes the character on it is Jesus, but he’s told it’s not. It’s St. Jude, the patron saint of hopeless causes. Though Charlie thinks his life is a hopeless cause, and it really is the way it’s going, I felt the need for some sudden epiphany based on the necklace, but it never happened.
So, though not perfect, I really loved this movie. Zac has turned into quite a fine actor, and I think he nailed this. It was a wise choice for him to give up the lead in the Footloose remake, similar to his older Disney Channel roles, and take on the role of Charlie. Also, his little brother Sam, played by Charlie Tahan, was very well played. He’s young, but he had a difficult time playing part spoiled brat, part fearful little child, and part lost soul. The only miscast, maybe, was Amanda Crew. She’s too tall for Zac, and though she did a pretty good job, I have the feeling (and my wife concurs) that someone else would probably have been better in the role of Tess.
All in all, it’s a great story, and has lots of laughs and tears and plenty to think about after you see it. It’s a well written story and well filmed. The scenery, as always, in Vancouver where it was filmed is gorgeous. Originally this was set to be filmed in Massachusetts, but the costs moved it to B.C. which didn’t hurt it a bit. It’s beautiful there.
Well, that’s about it. I really enjoyed the movie, and it touched me a lot. I know some out there will hate it. I can see two reasons for why people would hate it. First, because Zac Effron is in it. People will hate it just because they hate him. Not sure why, as he really showed a lot of talent and emotion in this film. Second, because it is an emotional, heart wrenching story, but very short on guns and explosions, car chases and such. It’s definitely not an action flick. So if you are a hater, let me know why. For me, I highly recommend it.
