Now Showing: The line between the living and the dead

"You hurt because you're alive."

You should've been dead. Sometimes you wish you were dead.

It's a question no one can really answer: how would you go on living when your loved one died. Somehow it should have a simply answer of letting the dead bury the dead and move on, but surviving while his brother lay cold was nothing Charlie St. Cloud (Zack Efron) could ever bear.

The movie (directed by Burr Steers) made me reflect about the vague line separating the dead and the living, with people who are still alive and yet live like the dead, with its quite heavy drama of someone with a bright future ahead losing his younger brother and blaming himself for it. But a deal made the two brothers still meet at the woods everyday, and for some reason Charlie could not only see his dead brother Sam (Charlie Tahan), but also see other people who died.

I first thought the arrival of romance to wake Charlie up to reality was predictable, but it actually made me shiver as the plot became more complicated. At first I was shocked that Tess (Amanda Crew), Charlie's lover, already died and was a ghost as well, and seeing her was just like seeing his dead brother. It was a creative twist they made that Tess didn't really die; it was somehow a part of her soul that appeared to Charlie who wanted him to find her after she got lost in an island while sailing. 

The plot was truly breathtaking and unexpected and heartwarming at the same time. The scene where Sam walked out out of the woods knowing his brother won't come anymore (because he had to save Tess) and saying "I love you Charlie" really made me cry. A story of two brothers and of choices, Charlie St. Cloud made me realize that in the end, it's always up to us whether we'll continue to live or waste it away.