This is the kind of mawkish schmaltz you’d expect to see on a Sunday afternoon on some made-for-TV movie channel.
Burr Steer’s attempt at bringing Ben Sherwood’s novel to screen starts off fine, beautifully shot by cinematographer Enrique Chediak, but it just ends up as a sentimental bore. Zac Efron plays Charlie St. Cloud – a young sailor who can see and talk to his deceased younger brother who died in a car crash. He’s actually rather good, but the below-par script makes this a washed up and tedious venture.
Charlie St. Cloud (2010), directed by Burr Steer, is available on DVD and Blu-ray from Universal Pictures, certificate 12.
