Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
xx
Adjustment Bureau, The
53
Alice in Wonderland
47
A-Team, The
84
Avatar![]()
63
Babies
34
Back-up Plan, The
53
Book of Eli, The
22
Bounty Hunter, The
30
Cats & Dogs: The Revenge of Kitty Galore
xx
Chain Letter
39
Clash of the Titans
31
Cop Out
55
Crazies, The
56
Date Night
51
Death at a Funeral
72
Despicable Me
56
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
56
Dinner for Schmucks
51
Eat Pray Love
45
Expendables, The
23
Furry Vengeance
65
Get Him to the Greek
61
Green Zone
30
Grown Ups
63
Hot Tub Time Machine
74
How to Train Your Dragon
79
IMAX: Hubble 3D
74
Inception
57
Iron Man 2
33
Jonah Hex
52
Just Wright
61
Karate Kid, The
66
Kick-Ass
21
Killers
46
Knight and Day
20
Last Airbender, The
xx
Last Exorcism, The
33
Last Song, the
31
Letters to God
50
Letters to Juliet
43
MacGruber
30
Marmaduke
35
Nightmare on Elm Street, A
75
Oceans
64
Other Guys, The
38
Our Family Wedding
47
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
xx
Piranha 3-D
51
Predators
50
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
56
Ramona and Beezus
40
Remember Me
53
Robin Hood
65
Salt
67
Scott Pilgrim vs. the World
27
Sex and the City 2
46
She's Out of My League
58
Shrek Forever After
63
Shutter Island
46
Sorcerer's Apprentice, The
66
Splice
45
Step Up 3D
xx
Takers
92
Toy Story 3![]()
58
Twilight Saga: Eclipse, The
44
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
43
Why Did I Get Married Too
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
52
[Rec] 2
xx
12th & Delaware
xx
180° South
90
45365![]()
55
8: The Mormon Proposition
xx
Accidents Happen
62
After the Cup: The Sons of Sakhnin United
36
After.Life
73
Agony and the Ecstasy of Phil Spector, The
55
Agora
82
Ajami![]()
77
Alamar
78
Anton Chekhov's The Duel
63
Around a Small Mountain
57
Audrey the Trainwreck
xx
Badmaash Company
xx
Barking Water
75
Beetle Queen Conquers Tokyo
62
Behind the Burly Q
63
Best Worst Movie
31
Black Waters of Echo's Pond, The
35
Boogie Woogie
64
Breath Made Visible: Anna Halprin
xx
Brotherhood
24
Burzynski
51
Butcher's Son, The
xx
Ca$h
67
Cairo Time
59
Cartel, The
68
Casino Jack and the United States of Money
37
Charlie St. Cloud
xx
Cheech & Chong's Hey Watch This
48
Chloe
66
City Island
52
City of Your Final Destination, The
56
Coco Chanel & Igor Stravinsky
58
Concert, The
xx
Contenders, The
xx
Convention
71
Countdown to Zero
83
Crazy Heart![]()
51
Creation
xx
Cremaster Cycle, The
73
Cropsey
73
Cyrus
74
Daddy Longlegs
64
Disappearance of Alice Creed, The
73
Dogtooth
50
Don McKay
66
Double Take
47
Dry Land, The
67
Eclipse, The
85
Exit Through the Gift Shop![]()
56
Extra Man, The
75
Farewell
76
Father of My Children, The
30
Finding Bliss
38
Flipped
52
Formosa Betrayed
60
Fresh
xx
Fruit Fly
53
Gangster's Paradise: Jerusalema
43
George A. Romero's Survival of the Dead
76
Get Low
68
Ghost Bird
77
Ghost Writer, The
68
Girl on the Train, The
66
Girl Who Played with Fire, The
xx
Gone with the Pope
40
Good Heart, The
69
Good, The Bad, The Weird, The
49
Great Directors
45
Greatest, The
76
Greenberg
59
Handsome Harry
24
Happiness Runs
73
Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Suess
55
Harry Brown
80
Have You Heard From Johannesburg?: Apartheid and the Club of the West
57
Here and There
xx
Hey Hey It's Esther Blueburger
51
Holy Rollers
54
Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel
32
Human Centipede (First Sequence), The
79
I Am Love
91
I Was Born, But...![]()
33
In My Sleep
60
Infidel, The
67
It Came From Kuchar
74
Jean-Michel Basquiat: The Radiant Child
79
Joan Rivers: A Piece of Work
57
John Rabe
55
Joneses, The
55
Juche Idea, The
65
Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3D
86
Kids Are All Right, The![]()
53
Killer Inside Me, The
53
Killing Kasztner
44
Kimjongilia
xx
Kings of the Evening
68
Kisses
62
Kites: The Remix
47
La Mission
xx
Last Letters from Monte Rosa
xx
Law, The
63
Lbs.
xx
Le amiche
58
Leaves of Grass
87
Lebanon![]()
72
Let It Rain
70
Life During Wartime
41
Lightkeepers, The
76
Living in Emergency: Stories of Doctors Without Borders
37
Living Wake, The
66
Looking for Eric
72
Lottery, The
37
Love Ranch
86
Mademoiselle Chambon![]()
xx
Malice in Wonderland
46
Mercy
78
Messenger, The
47
Metropia
62
Micmacs
75
Mid-August Lunch
60
Middle Men
54
Misfortunates, The
64
Mother and Child
75
Mugabe and the White African
35
Multiple Sarcasms
65
Mundo Alas
xx
My Girlfriend's Boyfriend
50
My Name is Khan
41
Nature of Existence, The
71
Neshoba: The Price of Freedom
xx
Nightfall
71
No One Knows About Persian Cats
59
Nobody’s Perfect
72
Oath, The
xx
Ocean of Pearls
65
Ondine
59
Only When I Dance
58
OSS 117: Lost in Rio
xx
Oxford Murders, The
37
Paper Man
63
Parking Lot Movie, The
68
Patrik Age 1.5
40
People I've Slept With, The
42
Perfect Game, The
47
Perrier's Bounty
48
Picasso and Braque Go to the Movies
78
Please Give
31
Pornography: A Thriller
41
Princess Kaiulani
90
Prophet, A![]()
xx
Raajneeti
67
Raavan
78
Racing Dreams
xx
Ramchand Pakistani
xx
Red Birds
63
Reel Injun
85
Restrepo![]()
xx
Road, Movie
45
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Undead
xx
Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage
43
Salt of This Sea
81
Secret in Their Eyes, The![]()
81
Secret of Kells, The![]()
73
See What I'm Saying: The Deaf Entertainers Documentary
57
Severe Clear
57
Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll
52
Shine of Rainbows, A
48
Sicilian Girl, The
77
Single Man, A
68
Smash His Camera
69
Solitary Man
45
South of the Border
56
Spoken Word
47
Spring Fever
75
Square, The
22
Standing Ovation
75
Stonewall Uprising
53
Tales from the Script
74
Terribly Happy
78
Teza
75
That Evening Sun
xx
They Came to Play
49
Thorn in the Heart, The
xx
Thru the Moebius Strip
60
TiMER
64
Tirador
15
To Age or Not to Age
52
Touching Home
33
Trash Humpers
59
Trotsky, The
xx
Trust Us, This Is All Made Up
24
Twelve
56
Two in the Wave
62
Valhalla Rising
85
Vincere![]()
xx
Visionaries
54
Wah Do Dem
70
Warlords, The
56
What's the Matter with Kansas?
55
When You're Strange: A Film About The Doors
68
Whiz Kids
52
Who Do You Love
35
Who Killed Nancy
64
Wild Grass
xx
Wild Hunt, The
56
Wildest Dream: Conquest of Everest, The
69
Winnebago Man
90
Winter's Bone![]()
68
Women Without Men
xx
World on a Wire
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Charlie St. Cloud

Generally unfavorable reviews
Based on 30 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 11 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama
Written by:
Craig Pearce
Lewis Colick
Directed by: Burr Steers
Release Date:
Theatrical: July 30, 2010
Running Time: 109 minutes, Color
Origin: USA | Canada
Summary
RATING: PG-13 for language including some sexual references, an intense accident scene and some sensuality
Starring Zac Efron, Amanda Crew, Donal Logue, Charlie Tahan, Kim Basinger, and Ray Liotta
Accomplished sailor Charlie St. Cloud has the adoration of mother Claire and little brother Sam, as well as a college scholarship that will lead him far from his sleepy Pacific Northwest hometown. But his bright future is cut short when a tragedy strikes and takes his dreams with it. After his high-school classmate Tess returns home unexpectedly, Charlie grows torn between honoring a promise he made four years earlier and moving forward with newfound love. And as he finds the courage to let go of the past for good, Charlie discovers the soul most worth saving is his own. (Universal Pictures)
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
A delicate film - not flimsy, but fragile - that holds together on the strength of Efron's physical presence and performance.
Read Full Review >Movieline Michelle Orange
The vehicle may get a little jacked up along the way, but its passenger arrives in style: The kid’s a star.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey
The byplay between Efron and newcomer Tahan as his brother has a warmth and intimacy that establish the film's tone. The performances carry the film.
Read Full Review >Variety Dennis Harvey
Religious overtones, however, could make this the rare mainstream feature that connects with the faith-based entertainment market.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Aaron Hillis
This handsomely shot melodrama has a twist too peculiar to dismiss as some two-bit Nicholas Sparks weepie.
Read Full Review >Orlando Sentinel Roger Moore
The movie’s central gimmick isn’t enough, and when more supernatural twists that don’t play by the movie’s own fantasy rules kick in, it lost me.
Read Full Review >New York Observer Rex Reed
One thing that defies debate: Zac Efron is going places as an actor of value. But he deserves better movies than Charlie St. Cloud.
Read Full Review >Arizona Republic Kerry Lengel
Guilt, grief and the struggle to move on are big themes, but unfortunately, director Burr Steers and his script writers aren't interested in exploring them.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
Charlie St. Cloud is primarily a vehicle to prove the actor can do more than dance and sing. It's more of a demo reel for Efron than a movie. His predominant fan base, though, won't mind a bit.
Read Full Review >Boxoffice Magazine Vadim Rizov
The surprises really do surprise but often because they're remarkably stupid and poorly explained.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
The film is memorable mainly for attractive people sailing and smooching against an attractive backdrop. There’s no urgency behind all the preening.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
The movie tries to capture the crushing weight of loss, but between the insipid pop tunes and the repetitive shots cutting away to a lighthouse on a scenic outcropping, it feels more like a film version of a condolence card.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
The surreal thing is, Zac Efron can't do despair.
Read Full Review >Time Out New York Keith Uhlich
Cue those weepy violins. Indeed, you get everything you’d expect from this mostly saccharine melodrama.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
Though the soundtrack comes on kind of heavy, the cinematography (by Enrique Chediak) has a beautiful clarity. Yorick’s skull or not, Charlie St. Cloud is no Shakespearean drama, but the film should prove to be another solid stepping stone for Efron on his way to a long adult career.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Betsy Sharkey
For now, Efron remains an unrealized dream and Charlie St. Cloud an unrealized movie, though judging from the "ooohhs" and "awwwws" from the audience, for his core tween-girl fans, that's more than enough.
Read Full Review >NPR Mark Jenkins
This ode to "moving on" from grief packs so little genuine emotion that it will touch only the most susceptible of viewers.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
Though it was directed by Burr Steers, Charlie St. Cloud feels more like a misguided collaboration among Nicholas Sparks, M. Night Shyamalan and Billy Graham.
Read Full Review >St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams
It's more like a shelved episode of "Touched by An Angel." The sappy script is a disservice to the naturally effervescent Efron, whose character is so mopey he makes Robert Pattinson seem like a song-and-dance man.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Director Burr Steers milks them dry, like an overeager farmer at milking time, which is a paradox since this is the wettest picture of 2010, what with the sea spray and Efron's tear ducts and the general metaphysical mist.
Read Full Review >Premiere John DeVore
Ultimately, the reason Charlie St. Cloud loses its momentum is because a love triangle between a grieving man, a beautiful woman from his past, and a spectral shade is just too strange.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Clumsily incorporates elements of "Ghost," "The Sixth Sense," and "Field of Dreams."
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Charlie St. Cloud, like its star Zac Efron, is a gorgeous, unblemished thing. Both would be much improved with a tiny flaw or two.
Read Full Review >The Hollywood Reporter Kirk Honeycutt
The film doesn't just fail, it actually gets sillier by the minute.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader J.R. Jones
The scenes in which Charlie plays catch with the ghost of his Red Sox-happy brother are only the most mawkish in a movie whose every element is calculated to set a 12-year-old girl's heart thumping.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
A maudlin and unintentionally hilarious romantic weepie.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
What “serious” means for young actors, as we know from Miley Cyrus’s "The Last Song," is maudlin, and Charlie St. Cloud is no exception.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Some bad movies should carry a leper's bell to warn off ticket buyers. Such a contagion is Charlie St. Cloud, a load of mawkish swill starring Zac Efron (bereft of the talent he showed in "Me and Orson Welles").
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
You are not, in a movie like this, supposed to think too much; 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.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 6.0 (out of 10) based on 11 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
Ken B gave it a7:
Pretty good movie. Has some sad parts, (a couple of girls were crying a few seats over). All things considered, I'm glad I saw it.
Alan G gave it a0:
I thought Zac was bad in High School Musical. This movie sucks so much!! The plot is bad, the acting sucks, and its so retarded!! I liked 17 Again better!
Chad S gave it a4:
Charlie(Zac Efron) sees dead people, but he's not dead, technically. As the surviving brother of a fiery car accident, "Charlie St. Cloud" oversells the point of Charlie being dead inside by having him labor in a graveyard. Yes, we get it. Time stands still for the living, too; the living dead, just like the caretaker, a selective clairvoyant who only sees dead people he knows. Played by Zac Efron, the star of "High School Musical" has already demonstrated more acting chops than Miley Cyrus last year in Richard Linklater's "Me and Orson Welles", ingratiating himself admirably within an ensemble setting and indie context, but "Charlie St. Cloud" fails to capitalize on his good notices from, most surprisingly of all, a period-piece. Like Johnny Depp, and many other teen idols before him, Efron certainly doesn't want to be singing showtunes like a Jeff Conaway in "Grease", a grown man in his late-twenties who was still playing teenagers, but this actor in transition makes the mistake of catering to his old audience by remaining impeccably handsome against all probability, since most cars that roll over repeatedly on a highway, usually entails that driver and passenger suffer some form of serious injury. At his brother's funeral, the surviving McCloud should be in a wheelchair, and sport some evidence of having been involved in a vehicular crash, somewhere on his face. Depp, who once donned scissorshands to distance himself from his television work("21 Jump Street"), would have insisted on playing the scene, at the very least, with a bandaged nose(ala Jack Nicholson in Roman Polanski's "Chinatown"). Because of Efron's vanity, "Charlie St. Cloud" is a lot less darker than it lets on; it never really captures the tragedy of Charlie's wasted potential because you can't root for a down-and-out guy who looks like an underwear model. It's also hard to root for Sam(Charlie Tahan), who keeps his brother in purgatory for five years, then comes back and has the gall to tell Charlie how to live, after having seen the light, after all of his emotional blackmail. "Charlie St. Cloud", in a nutshell, is "The Sixth Sense" with Christian values. Like the boy in the M. Night Shyamalan classic, Charlie has to help a dead person, but unlike Cole, he's painfully slow to mobilize, only doing so after undergoing a spiritual awakening. "Charlie St. Cloud" gives the slightest suggestion that only religious people do brave things, when a friend's wife supplies Charlie with the motivation to be a hero, once she hands the previously godless man a devotional token. Being an alcoholic might have explained Charlie's initial listlessness, but Efron just isn't ready to go there yet. Efron needs to get ugly. He needed to tell Sam about the futility of baseball practice. He needs to alienate the girls. Before it can be an asset, Efron, like Depp before him, has to treat his face like a curse.
