'Cloud Atlas' - Epic, ambitious, thought provoking and misunderstood!
'Cloud Atlas' is full of sumptuous visuals, packed with fantastic performances by some of the best actors around, it is told with conviction and, if you enter into it without over thinking, it's a marvel to behold. It is a bold film that challenges the viewer not only to an endurance test, but to question some of our long held beliefs concerning love, action, inaction and the consequences they have even as they ripple through time.
This is a film you absorb not watch. It may take the first few scenes to get into the rhythm of the time shifts, but once you do, you settle into a story that is rich in meaning; romantic, heroic and sometimes very terrifying. It's a somewhat uneven adaptation of the novel of the same name by David Mitchell, a metaphysical trip through time that deals with the very concepts of evolution, reincarnation, endless love and the constant pulse of evil throughout mankind. Bringing this to the big screen is an epic feat spanning nearly three hours; of which I felt none of the time pass; it was that engrossing.
The movie intertwines itself through multiple story lines spanning from the 19th century to the year 2350, there are several stories that link to themselves and interesting enough, the actors play multiple parts that link as well. It is this mechanism that helps the movie along and adds more than a few nice 'aha' moments.
This is especially true in the storyline that follows Tom Hanks and Halle Berry through their time vignettes as two lovers destined to be together always. If you have every felt that you were meant to be with someone, that you have looked into their eyes and know that you have been together before, or will be again; this particular storyline will hit you right in the heart. Jim Broadbent and Susan Saradon follow a similar lost love storyline as does Jim Sturges and Xun Zhou and while love is the common theme, all follow very different paths.
The film is very episodic and while for the most part it plays well, there is one vignette I could have done without. A particular piece involves Tom Hanks and Halle Berry in a post apocalyptic world babbling in what sounding like a crude Australian dialect that was more distracting and almost completely unintelligible. Although the saving grace of this particular vignette was Hugo Weaving as a very creepy as well as horrifying devil on Tom Hanks' shoulder. Weaving plays a baddie though out the film and for my money, they could not have picked a better actor!
Because the film is episodic and very nonlinear, traditional movie goers (those that like a solid beginning, middle and end) may feel a little disconnected. But as I said in the beginning, this is a film meant to be absorbed, once you get used to the rhythm of the first few scenes, you can really allow yourself to get into the flow of it. While some may question the use of the actors across 6 or 7 different characters, I really appreciated it as a way of binding several of the stories together. Be sure to watch the credits as the actors are all credited to all of the characters they played. I was surprised by a few!
This is not a movie for everyone and it seems that filmmakers Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski and Andy Wachowski don't care. They put their vision out there, without fear and force the audience to react as well as think. This is a bold as well as challenging film, one that deserves a 4 star rating as well as a repeated viewing! If possible, see this one on an IMAX screen, it will enhance the experience even more.