Fridae

Teeny-bopper idol Zac Efron’s biological clock is ticking and nowhere do we hear it louder in Charlie St Cloud, as the actor struggles to improve his craft before he loses his youthful looks. One might urge him to gain a few pounds, grow a stubble, develop a permanent squint and start working with Martin Scorsese – but that might be overkill as this film demonstrates some potential for Mr Efon’s future film career.

Set in a comfortably middle class New England seaside town where almost everyone appears to have a sailing hobby, Charlie St Cloud is a film about a very depressed kid. The eponymous character, played by Zac Efron, saw his beloved kid brother (Charlie Tahan) die in a freak car accident five years ago. Time has moved on but the former golden boy with the sailing scholarship has chosen to live on as the cemetery caretaker, playing baseball with the ghost of his dead brother and talking to the ghost of soldiers from the Iraq war.

Of course, all Charlie needs is to fall in love to get out of his depression, find a reason to live anew, and move on. That’s where Amanda Crew comes in, I guess. This being a warmed over version of The Sixth Sense, do expect a supernatural twist of some sort in Charlie’s sentimental and schmaltzy journey towards spiritual redemption and hope.

Story-wise, Charlie St Cloud is a very simple tale, quite simply told. While this may not be as diabetes-inducing as any Oprah Winfrey book club selection or as powerful as Henry Poole Is Here, we’re sort of glad that the dialogue wasn’t too corny in both the romantic and supernatural threads of the film, that the cinematography was gorgeous enough to distract us from the obvious charms of Mr Efron, and that the acting from the ensemble of strong actors (Ray Liotta, Kim Bassinger, even Charlie Tahan) didn’t show up Zac Efron’s acting ability too much.

Fans will be glad to know that Mr Efron gets his shirt wet at least 3 times in the film.