Charlie St. Cloud
Charlie St. Cloud is a teen romance flick starring Zac Efron. As a high school senior he’s poised to escape from his cloistered home town thanks to a sailing scholarship (say what?) when his life gets put on hold with the untimely death of his eleven year old brother Sam (sparky but believable Charlie Tahan). Instead of college he takes a job as groundskeeper at a local cemetery so that he can keep a promise to Sam’s ghost that every night the two brothers commune via the ultimate male bonding glue, baseball. All’s fine for half a decade until the re-emergence of Tess Carroll, a former sailing rival played by Langley’s Amanda Crew – formerly of TV’s intriguing but largely ignored series Whistler in which she’s the love interest of a guy mentored by his brother’s ghost. Yikes, typecasting already. Also featured are Kim Basinger and Ray Liotta in throw away roles. When Tess is imperilled while training for a solo global circumnavigation Charlie has to make a choice between her and Sam. Charlie St. Cloud was filmed at West Van’s Eagle Harbour and It’s hard to decide what is more captivating, the steel blue beauty of our coastal water or the steel blue beauty of Efron’s dreamy eyes. However if you enter the movie with expectations as low as I did you might be pleasantly surprised.