Zac Efron Has His Head In The Clouds

August 3rd, 2010

Film: Charlie St. Cloud
Director: Burr Steers
Starring: Zac Efron, Chris Massoglia, Kim Basinger, Ray Liotta, Charlie Tahan

Ben Sherwood, author of The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud, is hopefully sitting somewhere with a bottle of whiskey, asking himself why the flying firetruck did he let Universal Pictures make an adaptation of his novel into a film starring Zac Efron.

At least that’s what I would be doing, because when your life’s work hits the big-screen with a joke of a script, a dull and confusing direction, and not to mention Efron’s shameful “dramatic” acting chops…there’s gotta be something to turn to.

Like some moonshine. Or maybe a stress ball.

Charlie St. Cloud is supposed to be an interesting tale about a boy named Charlie (Zac Efron) whose younger brother Sam (Charlie Tahan) dies in a car crash, leaving Charlie still seeing and talking with his brother’s ghost every evening when they play catch. After declining his scholarship and dreams following high school, Charlie instead becomes a worker at the town’s graveyard to be closer with his brother. When a girl named Tess comes into the picture Charlie must figure out whether he’s able to move on from Sam or not.

Oddly enough somewhere along the way of this potentially terrific project, which shows hints of Mitch Albom’s best seller The Five People You Meet In Heaven, someone decided to cast High School Musical’s boy-toy Efron, and then approve a script so cheesy that the Cheetos Cheetah mascot probably helped secretly co-write it.

It was filled with cliched pauses and unnecessary one-liners, which along with the over-dramatic acting took away the special zest that the story told on paper. But I’m not going to be one of those naive people who simply blame Efron, because I think it also has to do with the problematic direction of the film too.

The scenes never transitioned properly making the story unable to find a real flow to it. More specifically, if Charlies brother dies and it’s taking him years to overcome the loss, then there obviously has to be some clear plot line that features Charlie leading up to a climatic obstacle that will let him move on in his life. But for some reason instead of a main one, director Burr Steers had A.D.D and put in a good four-to-five subplots, which made me really bored and confused.

Too many elements. All cliched. And all not making any sense.

Surprisingly the film was actually going smoothly in the beginning when we see the comical banter scenes between Charlie and Sam. It showed a nice reflection of a real relationship between an older brother trying to teach a few tricks to his lil’ bro. But after the half hour mark or so, the film just goes down hill.

If you’re a sucker for Efron well, he’s pretty much in every frame of the film. But if you’re not lured in by the puppy dog eyes, then you’ll realize the film’s potential is maybe a Sunday night movie-of-the-week.

Best Moment: The funny scene in the very beginning of the movie after Charlie and Sam win a sailing race.

Rating: 1.5/5

Tags: Burr Steers, charlie St. Cloud, Charlie Tahan, Chris Massoglia, Kim Basinger, Ray Liotta, zac efron