The Kids Are All Right

I intended to review this movie months and months ago, but I never got around to it. Now that I'm updating my reviews more frequently, I'm looking forward to telling you what I thought! Check back soon.

Review: Charlie St. Cloud

I was in NYC this summer, and positioned right outside of my Times Square hotel window was an inescapable lighted billboard advertisement for Charlie St. Cloud, featuring Zac Efron's face staring heavenward, with his dreamy eyes and casually messy hair, the kind of hair that I dream about having at night. The minute I saw Zac, I knew in my heart that I would NEVER see this film in a theater, but that I might watch it eventually on DVD. Which I did . . . and I guess there's no easy way to say this, but I don't think there's any reason anyone over the age of seventeen should watch this movie, unless they're being forced to chaperone a teen girls' movie night.

Zac plays Charlie, a Pacific Northwest high school senior who's just received a sailing scholarship to Stanford. He lives with his mom, played by Kim Basinger (onscreen for a total of two minutes), and his little brother Sam, played by a cute little kid whose name I can't remember. Charlie and Sam are very close, and despite his busy work/sailing schedule, he promises to meet his little brother in the woods to help him practice baseball every day at sunset. When Sam and Charlie are in an accident, both are killed, but Charlie is resuscitated while Sam isn't, and Charlie blames himself. Charlie is overcome with grief, but luckily Sam still manages to take time out from the afterlife to show up for baseball practice.

Charlie continues to meet his little brother every day at sunset without fail, putting his plans for Stanford, sailing, and everything else to rest. He takes a job as the caretaker at the cemetary where Sam is buried, and when he isn't tossing the ball around with Sam, he's hanging out with his coworker, a zany British guy named Sully who is one of those random stock characters evidently provided for comic relief (it doesn't work). Charlie and Sam have lots of sunset chats and everything is running smooth until Charlie runs into a Tess, a girl he graduated with who is back in town. Tess is into sailing too, and she has plans to sail around the world (or something like that).

Charlie and Tess start hanging out more and more and end up falling in love, and Charlie starts showing up late for practice with Sam, and Sam gets irate and jealous of his brother's new relationship. At this point I wasn't sure whether to keep watching or not, because the thought of codependency extending into the afterlife is not something I'd like to contemplate. And the situation is complicated by the fact that, because Charlie was technically dead for a few minutes before being revived, Sam isn't the only dead person that he can see -- only he doesn't know they're dead. I've hope I haven't given too much away!

I won't give away the ending, but I will tell you this: This was a very pretty movie to look at, but I found it riddled with cliches. You've seen this all before, but that doesn't mean your 14 year-old daughter has, and I guess if she's going to experience these cliches for the first time, this movie is as good (or as bad) as any. Charlie St. Cloud was marketed as a film in which Zac Efron transitions into more adult roles, but that wasn't evident to me because of what I believe is this film's target audience. Zac does, however, show signs of promise, and he also spends a lot of time shirtless or soaking wet or both, so those who are interested in that won't be disappointed.

Recommendation: Listen to it from the next room during your daughter's next slumber party.

Review: Hereafter

I went into the new Clint Eastood/Matt Damon movie "cold" on its opening weekend -- somehow I had managed to avoid seeing any previews or commercials for it. I was mostly very pleased with it, except for a couple of seemingly minor things that, were I not a generous and forgiving viewer, could have easily tarnished the entire movie for me.

Damon plays George, a man who previously "enjoyed" a lucrative career as a psychic who acted as a conduit between grieving relatives of people who have passed away and their deceased loved ones. Simply by touching his clients, he can tap into "the hereafter", and relay messages of forgiveness for past transgressions and resolve unresolved conflicts, leaving them with a measure of peace. As a child, he experienced an illness which left him with this "gift", which many people, including his brother, consider a blessing. George doesn't see it that way, believing that "a life devoted to death is not a good life." The physical, emotional, and spiritual energy that it takes to constantly deal with those who are mourning and desperate and their loved ones on the other side finally takes its toll, and he abandons his career at the height of his popularity to move to San Francisco and take a job as a dock worker in the hopes of living in relative anonimity.

In the meantime, the two other central characters in the film are having life-changing experiences as well. Marie, a French journalist, barely survives an experience which I will only describe as being one of the most overwhelming scenes I've witnessed in a theater since the opening fifteen minutes of Saving Private Ryan. She briefly witnesses "visions" of what she believes is an afterlife, and this radically changes her life. A London schoolboy named Marcus experiences an inconsolable loss when the most important person in his life is ripped away from him in a traffic accident. He, too, becomes preoccupied with finding out what happens to us after we exit this life.

George, in the meantime, is having difficulty staying out of the spotlight. Manic, desperate people track him down pleading for psychic readings, and he can't really get a girlfriend because once a girl finds out what he used to do for a living, that's all they want from him (it doesn't help that the girls that are drawn to him seem to have major issues). Eventually, his path crosses with those of Marie and Marcus.

I won't spoil the ending for you, but I will say this: One of the things that didn't really ring true for me in this movie is that when one of the characters is investigating theories of why we're here and what happens to us after we die, this character appears to dismiss Christianity immediately, without even pausing to consider that it might be valid. I wanted more of an explanation as to why this particular character would do that. This didn't ruin the movie for me by any means, but it certainly disappointed me. What I found even more depressing, though, was that whenever we're privy to the lead characters' visions of what the afterlife is like, all we see are shadowy glimpses of dark figures roaming through some kind of fog. I don't know about you, but I feel like I spend half my life wandering through a fog, so spending eternity just doing the same thing doesn't appeal to me. Seeing this depiction of the afterlife made me happy that I've got a reservation for a different, better place.

Recommendation: Despite my misgivings with a few of the scenes, I can't help but recommend that you see this movie on the big screen. Eastwood's direction is impeccable, the performances are always compelling, and you do care what happens to these people -- I was nearly brought to tears several times, but then I'm a soft touch. Depending on your own beliefs about what awaits us in the hereafter, you may even be encouraged as you leave the theater knowing that you have more than shadows to look forward to.