Charlie St. Cloud

The in-flight schedule screamed out, “Zac Efron as never been seen before”.  It went on to describe how this was Efron’s first attempt @ a serious sort of a movie and not the usual Chick Flick & Musical stuff that we are used to seeing from him.  Now I am no Zac Efron fan but I must admit that I was quite intrigued with the strong write up.  Most importantly, I have, in the recent past, seen other chocolate boy heroes of the likes of Joseph Gordon Levitt (Inception, 500 Days of Summer) make a successful transition to what could be termed as quality movies.  Add to that, the summary of the movie seemed quite interesting and I was very keen to see if Efron could really pull off a role that would need significantly higher levels of intensity and emotions and not just preening around in the dreams of girls – something that Efron is really good at – and I mean that in a really positive way.

Charlie St. Cloud (Zac Efron) is around 18.  He is the eldest of 2 brothers.  Samuel (Charlie Tahan) is the younger of the two.  They are being bought up by their single mom Claire (Kim Bassinger) who is a nurse at a local hospital and works a double shift more often than not.  She needs to save money to put Sam through school and Charlie through to Stanford which he should make it through with a Sailing scholarship (I mean when will stuff like this ever come to India????).  Charlie is an ace sailor and teams up with Sam to win the local championship in grand style by a hair’s breadth, much to the joy of most people and the disappointment of his competition.  Charlie is about to celebrate the victory that evening but is told by Claire that he is on Sam duty coz she has to run her 2^nd shift. So Charlie spends time with Sam for a bit.  But his youth gets the better of him and he decides to play truant.  As he tries to sneak away, Sam catches up with him and insists that he should go along. Disgruntingly Charlie agrees.  As they are driving through the town and playing the fool while driving, they crash into a truck.  The paramedic, Florio Fiorentte (Ray Liotta) refuses to give up and in the process revives Charlie.  But is unable to save Sam.  Now Charlie has to live with the thought of being responsible for Sam’s untimely death.

CSC is a movie that runs extremely high on emotions.  It deals with the extremely sensitive topic of responsibility for someone’s death.  It is hard enough to live with the thought leave along having to deal with it personally.  And how does one deal with it if its your own kid brother? God knows none of us want to be in Charlie’s place.  Having said that, director Burr Steers still had to get the concept to life. His previous attempts would not have inspired too much confidence in anyone.  His only directorial effort before this was again with Zac Efron in that RomCom called 17 Again.  However, he does show that there is talent lurking somewhere in him.  Most scenes are handled very sensitively and effectively.  And surprise surprise – turns out that Zac Efron is NOT a one trick pony.  He plays the lead role of Charlie quite well and is able to emote very well in most situations.  The support cast is nothing to be too excited about.  Anyways it is a movie centred around a single character and I guess Mr. Efron has proven himself to the extent that he can be considered for future, more serious projects ala Joseph Gordon Levitt.  Although it must be said that Mr. Levitt far supersedes Mr. Efron in acting talent.  Yet another one not released in the motherland.  Should have been.  Would have done reasonably well I would guess.  6 on 10 from my side.

Runaway Bride

Garry Marshall is an expert at RomComs. And Runaway Bride would rate as one of the better movies that he has made. I guess Mr. Marshall, very early in his career i.e. way back in 1990 realised that he hit pay dirt with Julia Roberts and Richard Gere when he made Pretty Woman. We all know that Pretty Woman went on to break almost every Box Office record set previously. I mean which movie can you remember that lasted for nearly 50 weeks in India????? Mind you this was the era before the VCD and piracy. But lets not take the credit away from Garry for having given us some really great moments in an evergreen genre @ the movies – The Romantic Comedy.

In the Runaway Bride, Richard Gere plays the role of Ike Graham, a successful columnist who is hated to the core by most women thanks to his blunt and satirical comments directed towards them. He is however, in for a lot more trouble this time. Unable to hit upon an idea, that last minute man that he always is, he commits the cardinal error of journalism. Doesn’t verify his source. A half drunk man, apparently broken hearted, introduces him to the concept of the man eating woman who, it would seem, gets her kicks out leaving her “husbands-to-be” stranded @ the altar waiting to say “I do”. Please welcome Ms. Maggie Carpenter (Julia Roberts)!!!!

Now Ms. Carpenter is obviously displeased at this public display of her inability to cross the bridge 3 times in a row and quickly fires a note to Ellie (Rita Wilson) - Mr. Graham’s editor who also happens to be his ex-wife - threatening a law suit. Ellie is unfortunately left with no choice but to fire Ike since nearly 15 points in the article are incorrect – whatever happened to the gospel truth of a drunk man never lying. Poor Ike is now jobless but does have a guardian angel in Fisher (Hector Elizondo) who is Ellie’s current husband. Fisher comes up with a plan to vindicate Ike – by going after the true story – get it straight from the horse’s mouth.

So our hero makes his way to the sleepy li’l town where our heroine is seemingly creating havoc. Obviously he was mentally prepared to not receive a hero’s welcome. But definitely didn’t expect to get his hair coloured like a rainbow. That’s just the beginning. What Maggie isn’t prepared for is that Ike, the journalist that he is, has his smooth way with words and quickly manages to strike a chord with almost everyone in the town including Maggie’s 4th bride to be – Bob Kelly (Christopher Meloni). This time around, he wants to ensure that he gets all the facts right – what do they say about learning things the hard way? He uses his gift of the gab to the best and squirms his way into learning as many gory details as possible from people around the town, almost ex-husbands etc. Unfortunately, they also get to know a lot about each other and as luck would have it… oops… fall in love … now what????

Julia Roberts & Richard Gere have an on screen chemistry that can be compared by very very few. They actually bring to life, the mushy stuff that dreams are made of. The fact that they are good actors only adds to the entertainment. But the benchmark that they set for themselves with Pretty Woman continues to be the one that they share.

There are some brilliant moments in the movie. Chief among them being the reaction that Maggie has to Ike when he says, “Look, I guarantee there'll be tough times. I guarantee that at some point, one or both of us is gonna want to get out of this thing. But I also guarantee that if I don't ask you to be mine, I'll regret it for the rest of my life, because I know, in my heart, you're the only one for me”. For my money’s worth – one of the best dialogues from a RomCom. Just one of the reasons that Garry Marshall is the best guy to make a RomCom.

Easy watch any given Sunday. Not difficult to go thru. Nothing complicated. Simple straight forward vintage romance. 6 on 10 for this one.