5/5
Cloud Atlas is a sprawling, complex, beautiful, and brilliant feature film. It encompasses such a broad horizon of places, times, and stories with such ease that we are led through this epic at times majestically and by the hand, other times thrown into the action. The combination of directing styles works better than expected, and the actors each play so many roles here that they can showcase their true talents of adapting to fill a different skin, quite literally. One of the most ambitious movies I have ever seen, Cloud Atlas is a tremendous success in simply its ability to so carefully tell six interweaving storylines, add to that the strong script and soundtrack, coupled with wonderful acting, and you have one of the most unique films you will ever see.
Cloud Atlas tells six different stories, ranging from a historical adventure in 1850 to an allegorical post-apocalyptic tale told many, many years into the future. Stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Jim Sturgess, Ben Whishaw, Bae Doona, Hugo Weaving, James D’Arcy, Hugh Grant, and Susan Sarandon all play a part in each of these six chronicles, often playing characters that define the age or even race of the actor. The other stories take place in the 1930s, 1970s, 2012, and the 22nd century respectively. Each of these threads are told with tribute to their individual genre, be it corporate espionage or dystopian future, and they all blend in to one solid plot. Clocking in at just under 3 hours, Cloud Atlas feels like it contains more than is possible in one film, because of the multitude of threads we feel as if we have known the characters their whole lives. The different stories fit together smoothly and by the conclusion, it feels like we have witnessed one coherent and extensive story arc.
Cloud Atlas is a sprawling, complex, beautiful, and brilliant feature film. It encompasses such a broad horizon of places, times, and stories with such ease that we are led through this epic at times majestically and by the hand, other times thrown into the action. The combination of directing styles works better than expected, and the actors each play so many roles here that they can showcase their true talents of adapting to fill a different skin, quite literally. One of the most ambitious movies I have ever seen, Cloud Atlas is a tremendous success in simply its ability to so carefully tell six interweaving storylines, add to that the strong script and soundtrack, coupled with wonderful acting, and you have one of the most unique films you will ever see.
Cloud Atlas tells six different stories, ranging from a historical adventure in 1850 to an allegorical post-apocalyptic tale told many, many years into the future. Stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Jim Sturgess, Ben Whishaw, Bae Doona, Hugo Weaving, James D’Arcy, Hugh Grant, and Susan Sarandon all play a part in each of these six chronicles, often playing characters that define the age or even race of the actor. The other stories take place in the 1930s, 1970s, 2012, and the 22nd century respectively. Each of these threads are told with tribute to their individual genre, be it corporate espionage or dystopian future, and they all blend in to one solid plot. Clocking in at just under 3 hours, Cloud Atlas feels like it contains more than is possible in one film, because of the multitude of threads we feel as if we have known the characters their whole lives. The different stories fit together smoothly and by the conclusion, it feels like we have witnessed one coherent and extensive story arc.
The writers/directors have achieved something quite special here in the way they fuse these six seemingly different narratives into one film. That the actors each play a part in each story gives us the first link between settings, and perhaps what’s most intriguing is the various character’s developments over time, for example the villain in an earlier tale transitions over time to become the hero in a later one. In addition, there are small linkages across threads trough the continual reappearance of motifs, themes, or symbols. The love letters written at one point may inspire the actions of another character who discover the letters later on, or the presence of one character in a story may begin a ripple effect that leads to revolution. Simple things like the blue jewel in the movie are subtle details that also cross through the different stories, reaffirming to us that the directors have given much thought to how the film will be revealed to us as an audience.
Many of the characters of Cloud Atlas share a desire for freedom, a universal struggle that everyone from post-colonial slaves to modern-day homosexuals experience. The writers also use previous films in each genre as inspirational jumping points, most of the stories are unique retellings, but with reference to other foundations in film. There are also a few humorous puns which only certain moviegoers will understand, for example when Jim Broadbent is playing a pensioner in England he attempts to leave a retirement community by running and screaming about Soylent Green. Yet within minutes, the film can change to a dead-serious and dark tone as we are transported to the cabin of a ship with a dying lawyer, or to a dystopian future where genetically modified women work as waitresses in a dream-like café.
Cloud Atlas is a very special movie, one that is truly unique and original, despite it’s drawing from multiple genres and films. The Wachoski twins and Tom Tykwer work together fabulously, and while they do have subtle differences in their visual styles, it doesn’t really matter here as the texture of each world this trio creates is distinct in its own way. Probably the greatest challenge facing them was how to merge six chapters into one coherent plot without losing artistic expression or integrity. In Cloud Atlas the creators manage to do just that, the various components playing off each other while threading similarities between them enough to create a wonderful tapestry of a film.