''Charlie St. Cloud'' is a 2010 American
supernatural
Supernatural refers to phenomena or entities that are beyond the laws of nature. The term is derived from Medieval Latin , from Latin (above, beyond, or outside of) + (nature) Though the corollary term "nature", has had multiple meanings si ...
drama film
In film and television, drama is a category or genre of narrative fiction (or semi-fiction) intended to be more serious than humorous in tone. Drama of this kind is usually qualified with additional terms that specify its particular super-g ...
based on Ben Sherwood's novel ''
The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud'', published in 2004 by
Bantam Books
Bantam Books is an American publishing house owned entirely by parent company Random House, a subsidiary of Penguin Random House; it is an imprint of the Random House Publishing Group. It was formed in 1945 by Walter B. Pitkin, Jr., Sidney B. ...
. The film is directed by
Burr Steers
Burr Gore Steers is an American actor, screenwriter, and director. His films include ''Igby Goes Down'' (2002) and '' 17 Again'' (2009). He is a nephew of writer Gore Vidal.
Family
Steers was born in Washington, D.C. His father, Newton Ivan ...
and stars
Zac Efron
Zachary David Alexander Efron (; born October 18, 1987) is an American actor. He began acting professionally in the early 2000s and rose to prominence in the late 2000s for his leading role as Troy Bolton in the ''High School Musical'' trilo ...
and
Amanda Crew
Amanda Catherine Crew (born June 5, 1986) is a Canadian actress. Following her film debut in ''Final Destination 3'' (2006), she had lead roles as Felicia Alpine in ''Sex Drive (film), Sex Drive'' (2008) and Tess Carroll in ''Charlie St. Cloud (f ...
. The story is about Charlie St. Cloud's choice between keeping a promise he made to his younger brother, who died in a car accident, or going after the girl he loves. In some markets the film used the complete title of the book.
After winning the rights to adapt the book into film,
Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
had
James Schamus
James Allan Schamus (born September 7, 1959) is an American screenwriter, producer, business executive, film historian, professor, and director. He is a frequent collaborator of Ang Lee, the co-founder of the production company Good Machine, and ...
and
Lewis Colick
Lewis Colick is an American screenwriter born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Baruch College in New York and got his MFA in Theatre Arts from the UCLA Film School.
Filmography
*''The Dirt Bike Kid'' (1985)
*''Crossing the Mob'' (1988) (TV)
*'' ...
write drafts for the script, with
Craig Pearce
Craig Pearce is an Australian screenwriter and actor.
Pearce's acting credits include a regular role in soap opera ''The Restless Years'' in 1981, guest roles in '' Bellamy'', '' E Street'' and '' G.P.'', and film roles in ''I Can't Get Started ...
writing the final script, and director Steers helping to polish it for completion. The film's production (by
Relativity Media
Relativity Media is an American media company founded in 2004 by Lynwood Spinks and Ryan Kavanaugh. The company brokered film finance deals and later branched into film production and other entertainment ventures. The company was commercially s ...
and
Marc Platt Productions
Marc E. Platt (born April 14, 1957) is an American producer who has worked in film, theatre, and television. He has received numerous accolades including two Tony Awards, two Primetime Emmy Awards, as well as nominations for three Academy Awards ...
) began in
upstate New York
Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...
and
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
. Filming lasted from July to late October 2009, with much of it occurring in upstate New York's forest and
Gibsons
Gibsons is a coastal community of 4,605 in southwestern British Columbia, Canada on the Strait of Georgia.
Although it is on the mainland, the Sunshine Coast is not accessible by road. Vehicle access is by BC Ferries from Horseshoe Bay in West ...
' coastal pier.
''Charlie St. Cloud'' was theatrically released in the United States on July 30, 2010 and was both a critical and commercial failure. The film received generally negative reviews from critics, with many criticizing the script's tonal confliction and Efron's performance. ''Charlie St. Cloud'' grossed just $48 million worldwide against a production budget of $44 million (not including advertisement and distribution costs).
Plot
Charlie St. Cloud, with his younger brother Sam, wins a boating race on his
sailboat
A sailboat or sailing boat is a boat propelled partly or entirely by sails and is smaller than a sailing ship. Distinctions in what constitutes a sailing boat and ship vary by region and maritime culture.
Types
Although sailboat terminology ...
''Splendid Splinter'', subsequently receiving a sailing scholarship to
Stanford University
Stanford University, officially Leland Stanford Junior University, is a private research university in Stanford, California. The campus occupies , among the largest in the United States, and enrolls over 17,000 students. Stanford is consider ...
. He graduates from
Winslow High School and after graduation, Charlie promises Sam they will practice baseball every day until he leaves for Stanford.
That night, Charlie wants to attend a graduation party with his friends, but his mother makes him babysit Sam. Charlie tries sneaking out to the party, but Sam catches him and asks for a ride to his friend Tommy's house. While on the road, Charlie reassures him that his departure will not be like their father's abandonment.
The car later gets
rear-ended by a
SUV
A sport utility vehicle (SUV) is a car classification that combines elements of road-going passenger cars with features from off-road vehicles, such as raised ground clearance and four-wheel drive.
There is no commonly agreed-upon definitio ...
, pushing them into an intersection where they are
T-boned by a
18-wheeler
A semi-trailer truck, also known as a semitruck, (or semi, eighteen-wheeler, big rig, tractor-trailer or, by synecdoche, a semitrailer) is the combination of a tractor unit and one or more semi-trailers to carry freight. A semi-trailer a ...
, killing them both. During an
out-of-body experience
An out-of-body experience (OBE or sometimes OOBE) is a phenomenon in which a person perceives the world from a location outside their physical body. An OBE is a form of autoscopy (literally "seeing self"), although this term is more commonly use ...
, Charlie hugs and reassures Sam, promising not to leave him.
Paramedic Florio Ferrente revives Charlie but Sam dies in his arms. At the funeral, Charlie runs off, unable to put Sam's baseball glove in the grave. Running through the woods, he finds his spirit and discovers they can interact. Charlie fulfills Sam's dying wish by practicing baseball with him every day at sunset, even though it keeps Sam's spirit from "moving on."
Five years later, Charlie is a caretaker at Waterside Cemetery, having abandoned his scholarship. He continues to interact with ghosts, including his friend Sully who died in the
Marines
Marines, or naval infantry, are typically a military force trained to operate in littoral zones in support of naval operations. Historically, tasks undertaken by marines have included helping maintain discipline and order aboard the ship (refle ...
. Charlie runs into Florio, who is dying of cancer.
Florio encourages Charlie to live his life more fully, in search of the reason why he was saved. At the docks, Charlie meets Tess Carroll, an old classmate and sailor planning to
solo-sail around the world.
The following day, Charlie finds an injured Tess tending her father's grave. He tends to her at his home and they develop a relationship. Later, when Charlie arrives late to see Sam, he says he felt Charlie forgetting him and himself disappearing. Charlie explains his ongoing relationship with Sam to Tess, who has followed him, and ends things to not lose Sam.
Charlie learns that Tess disappeared with her boat in a storm three days earlier. After meeting her on the docks, he believes he's really been interacting with her spirit as she appeared at the cemetery, and he assumes she died at sea.
Florio's wife Carla tells Charlie that Florio died the previous night, giving him his
St. Jude
Jude ( grc-gre, Ἰούδας Ἰακώβου translit. Ioúdas Iakóbou) was one of the Twelve Apostles of Jesus according to the New Testament. He is generally identified as Thaddeus ( grc-gre, Θαδδαῖος; cop, ⲑⲁⲇⲇⲉⲟⲥ; ...
medallion. Remembering that Florio believed there is no such thing as a lost cause, he becomes convinced that Tess is alive and that he was saved to save her now.
With his friend Alistair and Tess's coach Tink, Charlie takes Tink's boat to find her. At sunset, Charlie misses his game with Sam, causing him to move on from the living world as the brothers affirm their love. Sam appears to Charlie as a shooting star, revealing Tess' location. They find the wrecked boat and an unconscious Tess. Charlie uses his body heat to keep her warm until the
Coast Guard
A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...
arrives, protecting her against
hypothermia
Hypothermia is defined as a body core temperature below in humans. Symptoms depend on the temperature. In mild hypothermia, there is shivering and mental confusion. In moderate hypothermia, shivering stops and confusion increases. In severe h ...
.
Later, Charlie invites Tess to ride with him on an old sail boat he has bought. She is afraid, as she has had vivid dreams about them together. He tells Tess that these are memories, reciting a quote from her father's funeral that he discussed with her spirit. Charlie quits his job and makes his final peace with Sam's spirit. Some time later, they set off to sail around the world.
Cast
Production
A bidding war for the
film rights
A film also called a movie, motion picture, moving picture, picture, photoplay or (slang) flick is a work of visual art that simulates experiences and otherwise communicates ideas, stories, perceptions, feelings, beauty, or atmosphere ...
to the book by author
Ben Sherwood
Benjamin Berkley "Ben" Sherwood (born February 12, 1964) is an American writer, journalist, and producer who was formerly the President of Disney-ABC Television Group and ABC News.
Early life and education
Sherwood was born to a wealthy Jewish ...
broke out in April and May 2003, before the book was published, with three studios competing for the rights.
Universal Studios
Universal Pictures (legally Universal City Studios LLC, also known as Universal Studios, or simply Universal; common metonym: Uni, and formerly named Universal Film Manufacturing Company and Universal-International Pictures Inc.) is an Ameri ...
and
Marc Platt (Universal's president of production) prevailed, paying a reported
stimated$500,000 to $1 million for the rights (with that figure rising above $1 million if the film is made).
Ben Sherwood was guaranteed an
executive producer
Executive producer (EP) is one of the top positions in the making of a commercial entertainment product. Depending on the medium, the executive producer may be concerned with management accounting or associated with legal issues (like copyrights o ...
credit on the film, and Universal Studios executive producer Donna Langley was assigned to the picture.
Joe Johnston
Joseph Eggleston Johnston II (born May 13, 1950) is an American film director, producer, writer, and visual effects artist. He is best known for directing effects-driven films, including ''Honey, I Shrunk the Kids'' (1989), ''Jumanji'' (1995 ...
was initially chosen to direct.
Drafts for the script were written by
James Schamus
James Allan Schamus (born September 7, 1959) is an American screenwriter, producer, business executive, film historian, professor, and director. He is a frequent collaborator of Ang Lee, the co-founder of the production company Good Machine, and ...
and
Lewis Colick
Lewis Colick is an American screenwriter born in Brooklyn, New York. He attended Baruch College in New York and got his MFA in Theatre Arts from the UCLA Film School.
Filmography
*''The Dirt Bike Kid'' (1985)
*''Crossing the Mob'' (1988) (TV)
*'' ...
, but the final script was written by
Craig Pearce
Craig Pearce is an Australian screenwriter and actor.
Pearce's acting credits include a regular role in soap opera ''The Restless Years'' in 1981, guest roles in '' Bellamy'', '' E Street'' and '' G.P.'', and film roles in ''I Can't Get Started ...
. By March 2009, Johnston had been replaced as director by
Burr Steers
Burr Gore Steers is an American actor, screenwriter, and director. His films include ''Igby Goes Down'' (2002) and '' 17 Again'' (2009). He is a nephew of writer Gore Vidal.
Family
Steers was born in Washington, D.C. His father, Newton Ivan ...
, and Platt had named himself as producer.
Steers helped polish the script.
The first lead performer cast in the film was
Zac Efron
Zachary David Alexander Efron (; born October 18, 1987) is an American actor. He began acting professionally in the early 2000s and rose to prominence in the late 2000s for his leading role as Troy Bolton in the ''High School Musical'' trilo ...
, who turned down the lead role in
Paramount Pictures
Paramount Pictures Corporation is an American film and television production company, production and Distribution (marketing), distribution company and the main namesake division of Paramount Global (formerly ViacomCBS). It is the fifth-oldes ...
' remake of ''
Footloose
Footloose may refer to:
* ''Footloose'' (1984 film), a musical film
** ''Footloose'' (1984 soundtrack)
** "Footloose" (song), performed by Kenny Loggins
* ''Footloose'' (2011 film), a remake of the 1984 film
** ''Footloose'' (2011 soundtrack) ...
'' to star in this film. Pre-production had commenced by March 2009, with filming set to begin in July 2009.
Training with Efron began in
Vancouver
Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
,
British Columbia
British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, ...
, in July 2009, and started production in
upstate New York
Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...
July 2009 to October 5. Amanda Crew joined the film as Tess Carroll in July 2009, and shot her scenes the following September. A number of scenes in the film were shot in
Gibsons, British Columbia
Gibsons is a coastal community of 4,605 in southwestern British Columbia, Canada on the Strait of Georgia.
Although it is on the mainland, the Sunshine Coast is not accessible by road. Vehicle access is by BC Ferries from Horseshoe Bay in West ...
, including a scene in the famous 'Beachcombers' restaurant. Portions of the film were filmed at a Deep Cove school,
Seycove Secondary School
Seycove Secondary School is a Canadian high school in the Deep Cove neighbourhood of the District of North Vancouver, British Columbia. Located just east of Dollarton Highway, the school has a student population of approximately 500 students in g ...
, in North Vancouver, B. C.
Kim Basinger
Kimila Ann Basinger ( ; born December 8, 1953) is an American actress and former fashion model. She has garnered acclaim for her work in film and television, for which she has received various accolades including an Academy Award, a Golden Glo ...
agreed to play Louise St. Cloud (later Claire) in mid-August 2009.
Chris Massoglia
Christopher Paul Massoglia (born March 29, 1992) is an American television and motion picture actor, and a city council member for Blaine Minnesota's 3rd Ward.
Early life
Chris Massoglia was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, to Christopher and Kar ...
was signed in October 2009 to play a teenaged Sam St. Cloud, but never made it into the final film.
[As of October 25, 2009, the ]Internet Movie Database
IMDb (an abbreviation of Internet Movie Database) is an online database of information related to films, television series, home videos, video games, and streaming content online – including cast, production crew and personal biographies, ...
listed child actor Charlie Tahan
Charles Tahan (born June 11, 1998) is an American actor. His notable roles include Wyatt Langmore in the Netflix original crime drama ''Ozark'' (2017–2022), the voice of Victor Frankenstein in the Disney 3D stop-motion-animated fantasy horror ...
playing the role of Sam. See: . Accessed 2009-10-25. Efron wrapped his scenes in late October 2009.
Rolfe Kent
Rolfe R. Kent (born 18 April 1963) is an English film score composer.
Biography
Kent was born in St Albans, Hertfordshire, England. He attended St Albans School, worked at Balrossie School in Renfrewshire, Scotland, then graduated in Psych ...
wrote the score, with
Tony Blondal
Tony Blondal is a film and television orchestrator and conductor, and record arranger. He started out his musical career playing live (guitar) and doing studio recording sessions (guitar, mandolin, banjo, balalaika, charango and various instrument ...
orchestrating. It was recorded at
Skywalker Sound
Skywalker Sound is the sound effects, sound editing, sound design, sound mixing and music recording division of Lucasfilm. Founded in 1975, the company's main facilities are located at George Lucas's Skywalker Ranch in Lucas Valley, near Nicasio, ...
,
Marin County
Marin County is a county located in the northwestern part of the San Francisco Bay Area of the U.S. state of California. As of the 2020 census, the population was 262,231. Its county seat and largest city is San Rafael. Marin County is acros ...
, California.
Kelvin Humenny
Kelvin Humenny (born March 3, 1968) is a Canadian art director.
Filmography
*''Tomorrowland'' (2015)
*''Dawn of the Planet of the Apes'' (2014)
*'' Charlie St. Cloud'' (2010)
*''Hot Tub Time Machine'' (2010)
*'' Wind Chill'' (2007)
*''The Sist ...
served as the
art director
Art director is the title for a variety of similar job functions in theater, advertising, marketing, publishing, fashion, film industry, film and television, the Internet, and video games.
It is the charge of a sole art director to supervise and ...
for the film.
Music
Following is a list of music featured in the film, but not included in the soundtrack:
* "Baby Rhys Blues" by The McKinley South Experience featuring Mick Sihkins
* "Helicopter" by
Bloc Party
Bloc Party are an English Rock music, rock band, composed of Kele Okereke (lead vocals, rhythm guitar, keyboards, sampler), Russell Lissack (lead guitar, keyboards), Justin Harris (bass guitar, keyboards, saxophones, backing vocals) and Loui ...
* "Oh, No" by
Andrew Bird
Andrew Wegman Bird (born July 11, 1973) is an American indie rock multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter. Since 1996, he has released 16 studio albums, as well as several live albums and EPs, spanning various genres including swing musi ...
* "
Rasputin
Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin (; rus, links=no, Григорий Ефимович Распутин ; – ) was a Russian mystic and self-proclaimed holy man who befriended the family of Nicholas II, the last Emperor of Russia, thus ga ...
" by Studio K
* "We're Gonna Play" by
Matthew Barber
Matthew Barber (born January 10, 1977) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. His music has been classified as indie pop and pop rock with folk and alternative country influences.
Barber was born and grew up in Port Credit, which is part of Mississa ...
* "While We Were Dreaming" by
Pink Mountaintops
Pink Mountaintops is a Canadian rock and roll band from Vancouver led by Stephen McBean.
The band's first album, ''The Pink Mountaintops'', featured Amber Webber and Joshua Wells. The tracks varied from alt-country to indie rock.
The band's re ...
* "California Sun" by
Ramones
The Ramones were an American punk rock band that formed in the New York City neighborhood of Forest Hills, Queens, in 1974. They are often cited as the first true punk rock group. Despite achieving a limited commercial appeal in the United ...
* "Magic Show" by Electric Owls
* "Pull My Heart Away" by
Jack Peñate
Jack Peñate (; born 2 September 1984) is an English singer, songwriter, and musician.
Early life
Peñate was born in London on 2 September 1984, the son of an English mother and Spanish father. His maternal grandfather was author Mervyn Peake ...
Reception
Box office
''Charlie St. Cloud'' was released on July 30, 2010 and earned $12.4 million during its opening weekend, grossing $31.2 million in the United States and Canada, and earning another $17 million in other territories, for a worldwide total of $48.2 million, against a production budget of $44 million.
[
]
Critical response
''Charlie St. Cloud'' received negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
, it holds a approval rating based on reviews, with an average rating of . The site's critical consensus reads: "Zac Efron gives it his all, but ''Charlie St. Cloud'' is too shallow and cloying to offer much more than eye candy for his fans." On Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
, the film has an average
In ordinary language, an average is a single number taken as representative of a list of numbers, usually the sum of the numbers divided by how many numbers are in the list (the arithmetic mean). For example, the average of the numbers 2, 3, 4, 7, ...
score of 37 out of 100, based on 30 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore
CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data.
Background
Ed Mintz founded Ci ...
gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.
Film critic A. O. Scott
Anthony Oliver Scott (born July 10, 1966) is an American journalist and cultural critic. He has been chief film critic for ''The New York Times'' since 2004, a title he shares with Manohla Dargis.
Early life
Scott was born on July 10, 1966 in ...
of ''The New York Times
''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' commended Efron for having enough "geniality and melancholy" in the title role and cinematographer Enrique Chediak for giving the scenery a "convincingly romantic look and mood," but found the film overall conflicted with being a supernatural romantic drama that plays like a horror movie in certain places, concluding that "you are supposed to be transported beyond skepticism on a wave of pure, tacky feeling. Instead, in this case, you drown in sentimental, ghoulish nonsense." Bruce DeMara of the ''Toronto Star
The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...
'' gave praise to Efron as the title character but felt it wasn't enough to elevate the film from being "too formulaic, pretentious and cloying," concluding that: "Still, if your intent is to drink in the stunning hunkiness of Zac Efron, he's there in virtually every frame, brooding, wry, intense and actually somewhat believable. Too bad the rest of this ghost story doesn't hold up." Betsy Sharkey of the ''Los Angeles Times
The ''Los Angeles Times'' (abbreviated as ''LA Times'') is a daily newspaper that started publishing in Los Angeles in 1881. Based in the LA-adjacent suburb of El Segundo since 2018, it is the sixth-largest newspaper by circulation in the Un ...
'' wrote that: "The good news is that Efron continues to get better with each film; he just hasn't gotten a role yet that will finally put his acting potential to the test." ''Entertainment Weekly
''Entertainment Weekly'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''EW'') is an American digital-only entertainment magazine based in New York City, published by Dotdash Meredith, that covers film, television, music, Broadway theatre, books, and popular cul ...
''s Owen Gleiberman
Owen Gleiberman (born February 24, 1959) is an American film critic who has been chief film critic for ''Variety'' magazine since May 2016, a title he shares with . Previously, Gleiberman wrote for ''Entertainment Weekly'' from 1990 until 2014. ...
gave the film a "C−" grade, criticizing Efron's pretty boy facials for not displaying the character's emotional despair but "a fake-profound, lost-idol tranquility."
''The Hollywood Reporter
''The Hollywood Reporter'' (''THR'') is an American digital and print magazine which focuses on the Cinema of the United States, Hollywood film industry, film, television, and entertainment industries. It was founded in 1930 as a daily trade pap ...
''s Kirk Honeycutt called it "the latest to portray everlasting love on the screen and he film
He or HE may refer to:
Language
* He (pronoun), an English pronoun
* He (kana), the romanization of the Japanese kana へ
* He (letter), the fifth letter of many Semitic alphabets
* He (Cyrillic), a letter of the Cyrillic script called ''He'' in ...
doesn't just fail, it actually gets sillier by the minute." ''The Guardian
''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...
''s Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw (born 19 June 1962) is a British writer and film critic. He has been chief film critic at ''The Guardian'' since 1999, and is a contributing editor at ''Esquire''.
Early life and education
Bradshaw was educated at Haberdashers ...
wrote that: "Like a high-jumper cracking the bar in two with his forehead, former teen star Zac Efron fails to make it into the Mature Performer league in this unendurable romantic drama, filmed in the buttery late-summer glow I associate with movies such as ''Message in a Bottle
A message in a bottle (abbrev. MIB) is a form of communication in which a message is sealed in a container (typically a bottle) and released into a conveyance medium (typically a body of water).
Messages in bottles have been used to send distres ...
'' and ''The Notebook
''The Notebook'' is a 2004 American romantic drama film directed by Nick Cassavetes, with a screenplay by Jeremy Leven and Jan Sardi, based on the 1996 novel of the same name by Nicholas Sparks. The film stars Ryan Gosling and Rachel McAdams as ...
''." Wesley Morris
Wesley Morris (born 1975) is an American film critic and podcast host. He is currently critic-at-large for ''The New York Times'', as well as co-host, with Jenna Wortham, of the ''New York Times'' podcast '' Still Processing.'' Previously, Morr ...
of ''The Boston Globe
''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' wrote that Efron lacked suitable material to make his character interesting and that Steers' direction "cares not for pacing rdepth or the power of real emotion," saying "the movie is very much dead already. It has no pulse, no apparent breath, and a curious odor seems to waft from the screen not long after Charlie and Sam win a race together in the opening scene." Mark Jenkins of ''NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
'' felt the film lacked "genuine emotion" to backup its concept and that Efron was miscast in the title character role, concluding that, " like ''The Lovely Bones
''The Lovely Bones'' is a 2002 novel by American writer Alice Sebold. It is the story of a teenage girl who, after being raped and murdered, watches from her personal Heaven as her family and friends struggle to move on with their lives while she ...
'', this film doesn't attempt to show the afterlife as experienced by those who die too young. But then, who needs Heaven when you live in a picturesque sailing village in Microsoftland? ''Charlie St. Cloud'' may be a tale of loss, but its characters seem to have everything they could possibly want."
Accolades
Efron was nominated for a Teen Choice Award
The Teen Choice Awards is an annual awards show that airs on the Fox television network. The awards honor the year's biggest achievements in music, film, sports, television, fashion, social media, and more, voted by viewers living in the United S ...
for Choice Summer Movie Star - Male and an MTV Movie Award
The MTV Movie & TV Awards (formerly the MTV Movie Awards) is a film and television awards show presented annually on MTV. The first MTV Movie Awards were presented in 1992. The ceremony was renamed the MTV Movie & TV Awards for its 26th editi ...
for Best Male Performance for his work in the film, but they both went to Robert Pattinson
Robert Douglas Thomas Pattinson (born 13 May 1986) is an English actor. Known for starring in both big-budget and independent films, Pattinson has ranked among the world's highest-paid actors. In 2010, ''Time'' magazine named him one of the 1 ...
for '' The Twilight Saga: Eclipse''. Tahan was nominated for Best Performance by a Younger Actor at the 37th Saturn Awards
The 37th Saturn Awards, honoring the best in science fiction, fantasy and horror film and television in 2010 were held on June 23, 2011.
Winners and nominees Film
Television Programs
Acting
DVD Releases
References
External links
Officia ...
, but lost the award to Chloë Grace Moretz
Chloë Grace Moretz (; born February 10, 1997) is an American actress. She is the recipient of various accolades, including four MTV Movie & TV Awards, two People's Choice Awards, two Saturn Awards, and two Young Artist Awards.
She began actin ...
for '' Let Me In''.
References
External links
*
*
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Charlie St. Cloud
2010 films
2010 romantic drama films
2010s American films
2010s coming-of-age drama films
2010s fantasy drama films
American coming-of-age drama films
American fantasy drama films
American romantic drama films
2010s English-language films
Films about brothers
Films about grieving
Films about invisibility
Films about road accidents and incidents
Films about the afterlife
Films based on American novels
Films directed by Burr Steers
Films produced by Marc E. Platt
Films scored by Rolfe Kent
Films set in 2005
Films set in Washington (state)
Films shot in Vancouver
Relativity Media films
Supernatural drama films
Universal Pictures films