Review of Charlie St. Cloud (2010) by Dana A — 23 Jan 2011

It is wrong for one to laugh at people who play baseball with their dead brother everyday at 3pm but this movie makes it so hard not to. This was a mess and just didn't know what it wanted to be. Was it about grieving and letting go, or maybe it was about using your psychic powers to help the dead, or maybe it was about a bond between brothers, or maybe it was about sailing, or maybe it was about how Stanford allows you to defer for 5 years.

Either way you cut it this was just a poorly executed film, with too many themes, too many twists and too many unanswered questions. I appreciate the brave attempt by Zac Effron for wanting to tackle a more serious role and step out of his dancing shadow but wasn't the best choice actor.

He tried but just didn't possess the acting chops needed for such a misguided film. While the plot is confusing the plot twist is figured out about 30 minutes into the film and from there this is where the test of patience begins.

I found myself tuning out, bored and longing for dance number from Zac to wake me up. A nice effort but this movie fell into the wrong hands from its writer to its director to its actors.