Charlie St Cloud

Released in cinemas as The Death And Life Of Charlie St Cloud, this vehicle for teen dream Zac Efron is based on the Ben Sherwood weepie novel of the same name. Charlie (Efron) mourns the death of his younger brother Sam (Tahan) so deeply that he actually sees him as a ghost and spends time each day playing catch with him. Having given up a sailing scholarship at University in favour of working at a cemetery and brooding the rest of the time, it seems that Charlie’s life is stuck, forever linked to the terrible tragedy.
Throw in a young, pretty sailor (Crew) who could bring Charlie out of his gloom, and a spiritual ambulance worker (Ray Liotta) who tells Charlie there is a reason for him to have the gift of talking to his dead brother, and you can see a plot twist coming a mile away. Thankfully, Efron, in a grown-up performance that hints at an impressive future career, holds the movie together even when it gets predictable and schmaltzy, and while grown-ups will scoff at the sub-Sixth Sense-ness of it all, girls who heart Zac will be sniffling into their hankies from the opening to the end credits.