Efron sleepwalks through corny 'Charlie St. Cloud'

Zac Efron and the rest of the crew behind "Charlie St. Cloud" want their movie to be weepy, soulful, inspirational, cathartic, ethereal, life-affirming and who knows what else on the New Age emotional barometer.

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Too bad they didn't aim to make it a little interesting.

This melodrama about a young man who puts his life in stasis after his kid brother's death is a bore, despite a somewhat clever twist — somewhat because it momentarily jolts the story out of the doldrums before the movie settles back to sleep.

Adapted by director Burr Steers and screenwriters Craig Pearce and Lewis Colick from Ben Sherwood's novel "The Death and Life of Charlie St. Cloud," the movie deals with the biggest of issues — why are we here, where are we bound? — with the blandest of greeting-card sentiments.

While Efron aims to show he's more than just a "High School Musical" heartthrob, he's vacuous in the title role here, sleepwalking through what's meant to be a journey from the deepest despair toward new hope.

Efron's Charlie has everything going his way in his Pacific Northwest hometown. He's a master yachtsman about to graduate from high school and head off to college with a sailing scholarship. His female classmates swoon at the sight of him. He's best friend, idol and father figure to his young brother, Sam (Charlie Tahan).

Then Sam dies in a terrible accident, while Charlie is revived after a near-death experience that leaves him seeing dead people — not in a creepy "The Sixth Sense" manner but in an everyday, how's-your-afterlife-going sort of way.

He sees dead people
Five years later, Charlie's stuck in limbo, working as the caretaker at the cemetery where Sam is buried and still looking after his little brother, who keeps popping up from beyond to hang out.

What could ever shock Charlie back to life? Why, the love of a fine woman, of course.

Just as she's about to head off on a 'round-the-world solo sailing race, Charlie's high school classmate Tess Carroll (Amanda Crew) comes back into his world, rekindling his interest in living people, the sea and everything else for which he once had a passion.

The surprise turn in the plot initially leaves hope for something better than a predictable Hollywood ending. But if you give any thought to that little twist, it makes no sense, even within a story where a guy chats with dead folks. So best not to give it any thought.

Kim Basinger and Ray Liotta appear in oddly fleeting roles — she as Charlie and Sam's single mom, he as a paramedic who revived Charlie and asks him the Big Question — why'd you get to come back, kid?

Donal Logue also is on hand for a meager part as Tess' sailing coach, an insignificant character except for his silly name — Tink Weatherbee.

Steers, who made the decent teen tale "Igby Goes Down" and also directed Efron in the piffling comedy "17 Again," does a nice job putting some soul in the scenery, even if he can't manage the same for the characters. The sailing images are lovely, the seascape is bleakly beautiful, and the town is pretty as a postcard.

Efron certainly looks pretty, too, and since he's there for almost every frame of "Charlie St. Cloud," maybe that's enough for his young fans, even if no one's home behind Charlie's cloudy eyes.