Charlie St. Cloud, Starring Zac Efron's Abs

Details

Charlie St. Cloud
Directed by Burr Steers
Universal Pictures
Opens July 30

Related Content

• Brooklyn Kolache Co. is a Hidden Brunch Gem Inside Skinny Dennis
  May 28, 2013
• Following Michael Shannon Through His Sociopathic Career of Murder in The Iceman
  May 1, 2013
• Never Nominated For An Oscar...
  February 21, 2013
• Safe Haven: Unable to Ignite
  February 13, 2013
• The Paperboy
  October 3, 2012

More About

• Zac Efron
• Charlie Tahan
• Stanford University
• Transportation
• Traffic Accidents

In a go-nowhere Pacific Northwest town, dreamy high school sailor Charlie (played mostly by Zac Efron's abs and piercing gaze) puts his Stanford scholarship plans on indefinite hold after he momentarily flatlines in a car accident, which also takes his little brother, Sam (Charlie Tahan). Half a decade later, Charlie has sunk into a shy, brooding routine as a cemetery caretaker, and meets his dead bro in the woods every sunset to toss around a baseball. Adapted from a 2005 novel by Ben Sherwood, this blatant heartstring-puller from director Burr Steers (Igby Goes Down) is more sentimental than subtle in depicting a grieving young man who's been stunted by his inability to let go. But even at its most maudlin (enter Ray Liotta as the St. Jude–praying, cancer-ridden paramedic who revived Charlie and has suddenly reconnected with him), this handsomely shot melodrama has a twist too peculiar to dismiss as some two-bit Nicholas Sparks weepie.