Charlie St. Cloud
He promised never to leave his brother behind. Keeping that promise may stop him from living his own life.
Director
Burr Steers
Release
8 October 2010
Runtime
99 Minutes
Certificate
12A
Synopsis
Charlie St. Cloud is a talented young sailor preparing to leave home for college. His younger brother Sam idolises him, and the two share a particularly close relationship. Charlie promises Sam that they'll practise baseball together every day at sunset until he leaves. Then tragedy intervenes. While Charlie is driving with Sam, their car is involved in a devastating accident. Sam dies. Charlie survives. Overcome by guilt, Charlie struggles to accept his brother's death. Then something extraordinary happens. Charlie discovers he can still see Sam. He begins meeting his brother every evening, honouring the promise they made before the accident. Five years later, Charlie's life remains built around that commitment. He works as caretaker of the cemetery where Sam is buried and has abandoned many of the ambitions he once had. To everyone else, Charlie appears unable to move beyond the tragedy. They don't know that for Charlie, Sam never completely disappeared. Then Charlie reconnects with Tess Carroll, a talented sailor preparing for a journey of her own. Their growing relationship gives Charlie something he hasn't allowed himself to consider for years. A future. But Charlie's connection to Sam remains powerful. And when Tess becomes caught in a dangerous situation, Charlie must finally confront what his strange connection to the dead actually means. Holding onto Sam has allowed Charlie to survive his grief. Now he has to decide whether keeping his promise to his brother means sacrificing the rest of his own life.
The Movie Trailer
Charlie St. Cloud has his future mapped out.
He's a gifted sailor with a college scholarship waiting and a life beyond his small hometown seemingly within reach.
Then one night changes everything.
A car accident kills Charlie's younger brother Sam and leaves Charlie overwhelmed by grief and guilt.
But Sam isn't entirely gone.
Charlie discovers that he can still see his brother, and the promise they made to meet every evening becomes something Charlie refuses to break.
Years pass.
Charlie abandons the future he once planned and takes a job at the cemetery where Sam is buried, structuring his life around those meetings.
Then Tess Carroll returns to town.
For the first time in years, Charlie begins imagining a future rather than simply preserving the past.
But moving forward means confronting a choice he has spent years avoiding.
Can Charlie allow himself to live without believing that doing so means abandoning Sam?
THE PROMISE
Charlie Kept His Word Long After Everybody Else Thought It Was Impossible
Charlie promised Sam they'd meet every evening.
Death doesn't stop him from keeping that promise.
At first, those meetings provide something Charlie desperately needs.
They let him stay connected to the brother he couldn't save.
But years later, the same promise has become something different.
Charlie hasn't simply kept Sam close.
He's organised his entire life around never having to say goodbye.
What once helped him survive is slowly preventing him from moving forward.
TESS
Falling in Love Means Imagining a Tomorrow Again
Tess represents something Charlie has spent years avoiding.
Possibility.
She has ambitions.
She's adventurous.
And her presence reminds Charlie of the person he was before Sam died.
Their relationship therefore threatens the careful world Charlie has constructed around his grief.
Being with Tess means looking forward.
Meeting Sam every evening means looking backwards.
Charlie desperately wants both.
Eventually, he has to recognise that they may not be compatible forever.
LETTING GO
Moving Forward Doesn't Mean Leaving Sam Behind*
Charlie's greatest fear isn't simply losing contact with his brother.
It's what that loss would mean.
For years, keeping Sam present has become Charlie's way of proving that he hasn't forgotten him.
Letting go therefore feels dangerously close to betrayal.
But grief doesn't ask Charlie to choose between remembering Sam and having a future.
That's a choice Charlie has imposed on himself.
His real challenge is understanding that loving somebody who died doesn't require sacrificing the life that remains.