Charlie St. Cloud

In my last post, I mentioned that I would review a film I have been looking forward to all summer, Charlie St. Cloud. Now that I have seen it twice (once with Jonathan, once with KaRynn), I will do just that.

If you have seen the previews, you probably expect the movie to be a romantic, slightly sappy chick flick.

Certainly Zac Efron's audience is made up of women and teenage girls, and I think the movie advertisers tried to appeal to them. They clearly appealed to me. But I think they did the film a disservice.

Charlie St. Cloud is not as much of a love story as the previews make it out to be. It's so much more than that. It's a story about brothers. It's a story about loss. It's a story about living. It's about taking chances and finding purpose in life. It has comedy. It has action. It has drama. It has supernatural elements. And of course, it has romance. After all, what has a stronger affect on us in this life than love?

Add to that beautiful cinematography and breathtaking landscapes.

Of course, as with any film, there are things I wish would've been different. I sort of blame the director for coming in and taking out some of the raw emotion from the script, leaving it flat in some places. But at the same time, the emotion is not overdone. You won't feel drained after watching this film.

What I'm saying is, give Charlie St. Cloud a chance. It's probably not what you expect. I'd say more, but I really don't want to give anything away. You will be surprised by this film. So don't write it off. Go with a significant other or go with a girlfriend. It's a great summer movie, and I hope you'll see it at some point.

I should mention that there are (unfortunately) a few curse words. And there is a sensual scene, but nothing is shown. It is a PG-13 movie, but it's on the PG end of that rating.

One other thing I was surprised about this film: the soundtrack. I guess I expected an instrumental only soundtrack, but I was pleasantly surprised by the music selected for this film. To me, it fit each scene perfectly.

And if you didn't know, this film is based on the book by Ben Sherwood, The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud. I just picked up the paperback at Target for $6. I'm interested to read the story as the author wrote it and to delve deeper into the characters. Hopefully I'll enjoy it as much as I enjoyed the film.

If you do go see it, or if you've seen it already, leave me a comment and let me know what you think/thought.