The Wachowskis made a big splash in the movie world when they made The Matrix, which blew away audiences. It was visually stunning and the siblings have made some interesting movies after it, like V for Vendetta and Speed Racer. With Cloud Atlas they again try to bring a spectacle to the screen, but will it wow audiences?
Trying to give a summary of the story of this movie is nearly impossible, because it’s really six movies rolled into one. Spanning a huge time period from the 1800’s to far into the future the six stories are all linked together in some way. The cast is very interesting, with Halle Berry, Tom Hanks, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae and Susan Sarandon playing several characters of different races (Weaving even playing a woman).
Watching this it takes some time to get into all these stories, because the movie is constantly switching between them, which initially can be very confusing. Each story has some interesting elements, although I will have to say that the earliest story, which is mostly set on a ship, was the least interesting out of all of them. Visually it’s a very interesting movie, with the future shots looking exceptionally beautiful with blue glowing highways. The thing which will stand out though is what the makeup department has been able to do. Tom Hanks is almost unrecognisable in the opening shot or in the one where he plays a UK gangster who has written a book and still is stuck in his old ways. Halle Berry plays a Jewish woman, who you won’t recognise till later in the movie.
Unfortunately I really wasn’t able to enjoy the movie. I felt there wasn’t anything I could really anchor my feeling into. Every time one of the stories started to become interesting it switched to another one. I get the point that the movie tries to make, which is that everything is connected, but that isn’t that shocking. I would have rather seen the six short movies in order. Out of all of them I liked the Jim Broadbent story playing a publisher the most, followed the one about Sonmi-351. This is a movie which will surely result in divided opinions and unfortunately I am someone who does think it’s an impressive film which I worth watching, but something I personally didn’t enjoy as much as I’d hoped.
Good review.
Like you I didn’t connect w/ any of the characters in the multiple stories. The story that most enhanced me though, was w/ Broadbent as the composer.
That was an interesting story line, although I think it would have worked even better if it had been longer and more fleshed out, like him working longer for the musician and running into other issues. They did manage to show that strong bond between him and his lover.
I should probably comment here after watching the movie but I read the book so it’s almost the same thing. Timothy Cavenidsh is my least favourite part of the book and same goes with the movie. Looking forward to seeing it before the year ends.
Interested about your thoughts once you’ve seen the film!