Charlie St. Cloud

Zac Efron plays a young man whose life goes on hold when his kid brother (Charlie Tahan) is killed in an auto accident. He can’t move on because he’s literally haunted by the boy’s ghost and promises he’ll “always be there”; now a budding romance with a young woman (Amanda Crew) threatens the precarious balance of his life. Director Burr Steers and star Efron work together again (after last year’s 17 Again), and with a better script this time (by Craig Pearce and Lewis Colick, from Ben Sherwood’s novel). The story, despite its Sixth Sense overlay—or because of it—is rather touching. Efron has real star presence and he can act, and the role fits into the dreamboat mode his fans expect. Ray Liotta plays an effective cameo as the paramedic who saves Efron’s life in the accident that kills his brother.