Down With the Ship: A Review of Charlie St. Cloud

"Life is for Living"
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As much as I wanted to hate Charlie St. Cloud, I couldn’t bring myself to do it. No, despite being similar to the Twilight franchise in more ways than one, this piece is more deserving of sympathy than anything else. Unfortunately, try as hard as he might to keep his latest project afloat, Zac Efron ends up going down with the ship.

It is really too bad: Efron is not a bad actor but sinks under the weight of a boatload of tacky sentimentality, cheesy dialogue, and an overabundance of cinematic clichés. Playing a good looking, intelligent, and noble young lad, Efron’s character is Charlie St. Cloud. He is an expert competitive boater, loyal son and brother, and headed off on a scholarship to Stanford. Sound like the perfect life? Well, apparently not: it’s only a short matter of time before Charlie’s little brother Sammy is killed in a car crash, and Charlie reveals himself to be also a creepy weirdo.

Charlie St. Cloud is proof that there is such a thing as having too much survivor’s guilt. Blaming himself for the car crash that led to his young sibling’s untimely death, Charlie decides five years later to abandon virtually every positive aspect of his previous life, specifically his sailing career, Stanford, his social life, and to a large extent his own mother. Instead, he ends up leading a secluded existence in a shack, and working at the local graveyard. Think that’s overkill? This guy also deems it necessary to meet the departed Sammy every day at sunset. Yes, apparently Charlie has the ability to communicate with the dead…or does he? The rules to this beyond the grave connection are fuzzy at best and, to be honest, a bit disturbing. Had it not decided to go for melodramatic kitsch, this movie could have easily used its premise as a psychological horror film.

Anyways, back to Charlie and Sammy’s relationship. Admittedly, the two are somewhat endearing when pictured together. If only they didn’t take their bromance far beyond what is healthy, especially in a movie like this one. In one scene, Charlie’s prospective love interest Tess essentially asks him to choose between moving on in life with her or dwelling forever on Sammy. Charlie’s response to the girl is summarized in two words: “get lost.” Now look, caring for a family member’s death is perfectly acceptable but rejecting the hot, single girl next door in order to do so is borderline psychotic. Charlie St. Cloud treats crazy as cute and emotion as far more important than brainwork in a manner which is not particularly pleasant.

As mandated by movie law, Charlie does decide to worry more about his future girlfriend rather than his deceased relative. Although this comes as a partial relief, this relief is brief because it quickly follows up with Tess getting lost at sea so that Charlie may save her in an obvious parallel to the car accident he earlier experienced. Right before he heads off to rescue the damsel in distress (and perhaps his sanity), he is given a necklace of St. Jude, the patron saint of lost causes. Charlie’s response is that “there are no lost causes.” (Funny, if I do recall you abandoned that little nugget of truth by becoming one yourself. What do you have to say for yourself now, Charlie?)

St. Jude’s necklace is just one example of the many non-profound moral lessons that seem to be dropped liberally and arbitrarily throughout the movie. A few more key choices are “live life to the fullest,” “God has a plan for you,” and “take a chance.” While the ideas behind these lines could be and have been used effectively many times to bring about themes and character development, in this movie, they are simply just used in too unsubtle of a fashion. These mechanically emphasized ideas obnoxiously pound the audience with its own shallow brand of ethical code. Hopefully next time Efron chooses a picture to work on, it will be one that presents his talent rather than drowning it.

Official YAMB Grade: Neutral

Nate S Grade:

Story: C+
Acting: B
Aesthetics:B
Characters: B-
Overall Grade: C+

"You Sack of Wine!"
- Nate S