Tess (spoilers)

Exactly what I thought. Are we really supposed to believe that the almighty God brought back some random guy from the dead, so some other random girl wouldn't die 5 years later? Let me guess... God's really into sailing? Or what?

I think this is a valid question. The OP isn't talking about a real person. If you choose to believe in a God or if you choose to believe there was a God in this story who was manipulating the lives and deaths of the characters, it is very fair to ask why save Charlie to save Tess. This "God" allows people to die all the time. (Sam died. Florio died. They were both much more exceptional characters than Tess.) What makes Tess different? The movie really didn't do enough character development for Tess, aside from a few sappy conversations. I never got the impression that she was all that wonderful. One could argue that as a young woman it was impressive that she was attempting to sail around the world, but she was also stupid enough to sail right into a storm and ended up becoming the damsil in distress; that somewhat negates her status as a heroine. I would argue that her rescue is meant to play the role of saving Charlie by giving him permission to break the deal with Sam. Sam is also free then to "move on." Without a good reason to break their deal, they would have continued this way until Charlie died. By saving Tess Charlie saves himself and frees Sam. The fact that Charlie cared for her and saved her in itself is more important that her actual character. She could have been anyone.

I agree that she doesn't seem that special. In fact, I found her face downright unattractive and somewhat unpleasant, especially when she bunched up her face and cried in one scene. Why were all the women in the movie unattractive, by the way? And what was with the wrinkly-necked older woman wearing an extremely low-cut dress who came to announce her husband's death? That was bizarre.