On Charlie St. Cloud

This was written on Tuesday, March 22, 2011.  Just putting it here to start my movie thoughts blog.

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On Sunday I watched a movie that can, at best, be described as aggressively mediocre, Charlie St. Cloud. It was a decent movie; especially if you like sappy, sentimental movies (which I do); but not great. Yet, there is something about it that is continuing to stick with me. I don't know what it is, and I find that a little annoying. Let me tell you about the movie.

In the movie, Charlie St. Cloud (played by Zac Efron) is a high school senior ready to graduate. Big things are expected of him. He is at the top of his class and has a sailing scholarship to Stanford. He has a younger brother Sam, who is 11, who adores him and a single mother who will move heaven and earth to ensure that he gets what he deserves. One night after graduation, he sneaks out of the house (while he is supposed to be babysitting his brother) to go to a farewell party for a friend who is going to basic training.When he starts the car, he sees Sam standing in front of him. After a minor argument, Charlie agrees to take Sam to a friends house before going to the party. At an intersection, their car is rear ended and knocked into oncoming traffic, where they are hit by a big rig. Charlie and Sam both die in the crash, but Charlie is brought back. At Sam's funeral, Charlie runs off and sees Sam in the woods. There he makes a promise to come to that spot every day at sunset in order to practice baseball (Sam was supposed to play baseball that fall).

Fast-forward to five years later. Charlie never went to Stanford and is instead the caretaker of a graveyard where he sees people who have died before they move on, including his friend whose party he was supposed to go to. He has acquired a reputation around town as a head job presumably due to talking to people no one else can see. One day while in town, he sees Tess (played by Amanda Crew) who is going to sail her boat around the world as a part of a race. She is wary of him; basically having to due with her attraction to him; but accepts some advice he give her about her boat. Before the race, she decides to take her boat out sailing to test it and sails into a storm.

The day after the storm, Charlie is doing his duties, when he sees Tess laying on her fathers grave. There is mutual flirting and they end up falling in love over the course of 3 days. As a result of this, he is late to play catch with Sam and there is a bit of a fight. Charlie ends up choosing Sam over Tess. A little bit later, he realizes that she has been missing for 3 days and that he has been seeing her because she is between life and death. As a result of this and some inspiration, he goes out with a friend and Tess' coach and rescues her. After a brief hospital stay, Charlie decides to live life again and he and Tess get together. Consequently, he lets go of Sam; who had led him to Tess; and Sam moves on.

There was very little special about the movie. The acting is decent, the story is decent, and everything else is decent. Yet, for some reason, this movie is haunting me. I know that it might just be the fact that I love a good sappy, sentimental chick flick, but somehow it seems like more. Can't really solve anything, just felt that I needed to get it out. And there we have it. :-)