The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud (2010)
"Charlie St. Cloud" (original title)

Charlie St. Cloud has been given the gift of seeing his deceased brother, but when a new love interest is in trouble he must choose between saving a life or continuing to see his brother everyday.

Director:

Burr Steers

Writers:

Craig Pearce (screenplay), Lewis Colick (screenplay),

Stars:

Zac Efron, Charlie Tahan, Amanda Crew

3 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Zac Efron	...	Charlie St. Cloud
Charlie Tahan	...	Sam St. Cloud
Amanda Crew	...	Tess Carroll
Augustus Prew	...	Alistair Wooley
Donal Logue	...	Tink Weatherbee
Kim Basinger	...	Claire St. Cloud
Ray Liotta	...	Florio Ferrente
Dave Franco	...	Sully
Matt Ward	...	Connors
Miles Chalmers	...	Latham
Jesse Wheeler	...	Green
Desiree Zurowski	...	Carla Ferrente
Adrian Hough	...	Ben Carroll
Jill Teed	...	Grace Carroll
Valerie Tian	...	Girl in Toy Store

Storyline

Charlie St. Cloud is a young man overcome by grief at the death of his younger brother. So much so that he takes a job as caretaker of the cemetery in which his brother is buried. Charlie has a special lasting bond with his brother though, as he can see him. Charlie meets up with his brother (Sam) each night to play catch and talk. Then, a girl comes into Charlie's life and he must choose between keeping a promise he made to Sam, or going after the girl he loves

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Plot Keywords:

cemetery | caretaker | saving a life | grief | brother brother relationship | 

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Taglines:

Life is for living

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Genres:

Drama | Fantasy | Romance

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated PG-13 for language including some sexual references, an intense accident scene and some sensuality

Details

Official Sites:

Official site Official site [es]

Country:

USA Canada

Language:

English

Release Date:

30 July 2010 (USA)

Also Known As:

The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud

Filming Locations:

Eagle Harbour, West Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$44,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

£314,873 (UK) (15 October 2010)

Gross:

£1,299,236 (UK) (15 October 2010)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Universal Pictures, Relativity Media, Marc Platt Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

99 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

The town where the St Clouds live is actually a composite of four different towns in the Vancouver area.

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Goofs

When Charlie is caught by Tess looking at her boat, the collar on his jacket is lying flat. Right before he says, "Flukes!" the collar is up, then down again.

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Quotes

Sam St. Cloud: Just can't wait can you?
Charlie St. Cloud: Sully and Green leave for basic training in a week.
Sam St. Cloud: No, Charlie, I mean to get out here.
Charlie St. Cloud: C'mon I'm gonna see you all the time.
[Charlie smiles and puts his arm around Sam's seat]
Sam St. Cloud: That's what dad said.
Charlie St. Cloud: Yeah, but I'm not dad.
[Charlie unwraps his arm from Sam's seat]
Charlie St. Cloud: I'm not gonna ditch you Sam. I'm not gonna ditch you.
Sam St. Cloud: Whatever.

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Connections

Referenced in Community: Conventions of Space and Time (2013)

User Reviews

The St. Cloud Brothers In Life And Death

I was much moved by Charlie St. Cloud and by Zac Efron in the title role. It looks like the young man is going out way beyond being a Walt Disney bubblegum poster boy for pubescent young ladies.

When we first meet Efron in the title role he looks to be a young man with a bright future. A scholarship to Stanford is his as he graduates high school from his New England coastal town where he enjoys sailing and the companionship of his younger brother Charles Tatan. The two are rabid Red Sox fans as all New England kids are brought up to be. Efron's boat is named the Splendid Splinter which everyone in New England knows is the nickname of Ted Williams. Being much older than Zac or his character, I actually remember seeing Ted play.

A cruel trick of fate puts the two of them in the path of an oncoming drunk driver. Both die, but a determined paramedic played by Ray Liotta brings Efron back.

As per an agreement they made minutes before the crash, Efron and Tatan still meet in the woods every day to play catch and work on Tatan's baseball skills. It's all Efron lives for. By some trick of fate he can communicate and see Tatan, in fact he sees all kinds of dead folks including a young man he graduated with from high school who was killed in Iraq. Efron's forgotten Stanford and he now works at the local graveyard, the better to be near the ones he identifies with.

I won't go into the rest except that Efron does learn to let the dead bury the dead. Meeting up with Amanda Crew, another sailing enthusiast does help. And Liotta now dying of cancer tells Zac that he was saved for some special purpose.

Two great lessons of life are to be learned in Charlie St. Cloud. First that we all have some kind of destiny, the trick is to find it and recognize it. The second is that some people die young and maybe are meant to so that the rest of us recognize how precious life is and not to waste it. Having lost any number of people including a sister at a young age, it's something that is always uppermost in my mind.

Charlie St. Cloud is beautifully filmed with some breathtaking sailing sequences. The performers are flawless, especially Zac Efron. One thing I will agree with other reviewers about is that I wish that the role of the mother of the St. Cloud brothers played by Kim Basinger was more fully developed. After the death of her younger son, she moves out of town and you never really learn why.

Despite that minor criticism, Charlie St. Cloud is a moving film that should be seen by all generations for the life lessons imparted.