Charlie St. Cloud!!!

The film, 'Charlie St. Cloud' is based off the Ben Sherwood novel, 'The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud'. The title character stars the ever so talented Zac Efron. Charlie is graduating highschool and decided to go away to college on a sailing scholarship. After graduation, Charlie sneaks out of the house to meet friends-which is only what I assume, they never really say where he is going-and Sam(Charlie Tahan), his 11 year old brother asks him to drop him off with his friends. Throughout the drive they talk, play fight and somehow a car hits them from behind, they are okay but seconds later a truck rams into them from the passenger side, killing them both. Fortunately, Charlie was saved by the paramedic Florio Ferrente(Ray Liotta) but Sam could not be saved. The rest of the film takes place five years after the death of Charlie's brother and how he is coping and living with the guilt.


I have to admit, this film was quite a disappointment for me. I thought it was intrigiuing from the trailer, and pretty uique. But, the film had no sense of day or time and it was difficult to understand certain parts of the film. There is a nice twist which made it more interesting, but it wasn't shot right. I think if Director Burr Steers directed it in a way that would at least let the audience know what day it is or what exactly is going on with better special effects I would've had a different point of view and maybe enjoyed it a whole lot more.
Zac Efron was phenomenal. He has come such a long way from his High School Musical days. I feel the same way about Efron that I do about Shia LaBeouf, they are both tremendously talented and have so much potential but unfortunately a lot of people don't give them the recognition they deserve because of their past projects with Disney. For Efron it's the High School Musical films and LaBeouf starred in 'Even Stevens' for years on Disney. It's hard to break out and be an A lister, but Efron and LaBeouf have that potential. Zac Efron's acting in this film was raw and refreshingly real and it shouldn't have been overlooked. Amanda Crew, who portrays Tess, was boring and somewhat dull. She didn't bring much to the table and I had a hard time watching her because it was hard for me to believe that Efron(Charlie) would fall for this girl. The kid that played Charlie's little brother Sam(Charlie Tahan) was good, but his character was very annoying and selfish which made me not like his character at all. He was a good actor and talked like an adult which I enjoy watching children act mature but I didn't enjoy this character. Ray Liotta and Kim Basinger have nice cameos but for actors of that stature I just don't understand why they would have such tiny roles in this random film. Anyone could have played these roles, Liotta was a paramedic and Basinger was Charlie and Sam's mom. My only guess is to draw in audiences, but I never knew they were in the film until they came on the screen.
The plot of the story is interesting, but obviously unrealistic. It's at times hard to follow which made me keep questioning everything that was happening. I unfortunately can't go into detail of the plot or the story because it gives away too much.
I would only recommend this film to Zac Efron fans because he was awesome and maybe to people who read the novel that it is based off of just to see if it is similar to the book, but other than that it was not something I would want to see again. If you have seen this film or read the book please share your thoughts and opinions!!!