At the Movies - Charlie St Cloud

Charlie is an accomplished young man and a skilled sailor, who graduates from high school with a full scholarship to an ivy league college.  His life is on the fast track to success.  Then the unthinkable happens, and Charlie loses his younger brother Sam, and the light dims on his bright future.  Having faced death himself, Charlie comes out of the accident with a unique perspective on the world, and an ability to see and talk to Sam.  Charlie spends the next few years in limbo, clinging to Sam and the past.  That is, until Tess, a former classmate comes into town for an unexpected visit.  Soon Charlie finds himself at a crossroad, and must make a choice between the past and the future.  A choice that will change his life.

Charlie St Cloud was one of those movies I could have watched for days.  I did not want it to end.  Charlie was a great bird's eye view into how life in a sleepy Northwestern town can be both ordinary and extraordinary.  The acting was believable, and the characters were endearing.  So it was easy to transport myself to that sleepy small town.  And I really enjoyed the story.  It was definitely a love story.  Actually two love stories, one romantic and one fraternal.  Charlie explored our beliefs of what happens when we lose loved ones, and how we cope with that loss.  As expected, there is a bit of cheese interspersed throughout, but it was pretty good cheese that fit in with the story. 

Check out Charlie if you're a fan of the chick flick, and like Nicolas Sparks.  It was one of those kind of stories.  So if you want a sweet tear-jerker to cut through all the summer blockbusters, bring the girls to see Charlie.  But leave the significant other at home, because it is pretty much guaranteed to bore him.