Cloud Atlas is a marvel of a film. Having a $100 million budget that is almost entirely independently financed (the studio only payed $15 million of that) is rare, to say the least. This is a movie that needs to be seen, if only to make back its budget, which at the time of writing this has only made back about $22 million. That's 1/5 its budget. That is not good, especially for a movie that is deserving of so much more, and here's why:
We will probably get nothing like this ever again. Sure, directors and producers will try, but few will succeed the way the Wachowski's and Tom Tykwer have with Cloud Atlas. Whether you felt the movie worked or not, you have to agree that Cloud Atlas is important. Having seen it twice now, I believe I can safely say that this is my favorite movie of the year, and no, I haven't seen Skyfall yet (I plan to), and no, I can't see Lincoln (although it is supposedly FANTASTIC by the way) or The Hobbit or, even the movie I'm most excited for, the new Les Miserables really beating this movie. They might come close, but few movies come along that really really give me a pure sense of hope for cinema as an evolving art form like Cloud Atlas did for me.
Based on the acclaimed novel by David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas follows six different stories, taking place in six different periods of history and into the future and explores ideas and themes involving reincarnation, spirituality, love, slavery, altruism, the convergence of man and machine, and others. The six stories are:
- The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing - follows a lawyer on his trip back from the Pacific Isle to San Francisco to complete a business transaction and becomes deathly sick during the voyage.
- Letters from Zedelghem - follows an aspiring musician, Robert Frobisher, as he takes up the job of apprenticing with an acclaimed musician in the Netherlands.
- Half Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery - takes place in 1973 and follows Luisa Rey, a columnist for Spyglass Magazine as she unearths a deadly geo-political coverup.
- The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish - A publisher gets into debt and turns to his brother for help who tricks him into checking into a retirement home.
- An Orison of Sonmi-451 - An artificially made servant in future Korea escapes her captivity and has a choice to make involving the future of her society.
- Sloosha's Crossin' an' Everythin' After. - In a post-apocalyptic world, a valleysman tortured by voices of the devil is forced into helping a member of an outside race do research and complete a trek up a dangerous mountain.
If that sounds impossible to make into a coherent movie (let alone let actors play different roles in each of these stories), you would have been right, before the release of Cloud Atlas. The most miraculous thing to come from this movie is that these six stories and their interrelated themes are easy to follow. You might be confused or caught up at first trying to connect the story lines together, but eventually there comes a point where it quickly becomes evident what is going on and you just let it wash over you.
I don't want to spoil the movie for those who haven't seen it, and if you haven't seen it, you really should go buy a ticket now, so I won't get into the intricacies of each of these story lines and what happens exactly. What I want to talk about is the structure and construction of this movie and why it works. One of the things the film does so well is it's ability to shift tone drastically without losing focus. The movie will cut in between scenes via movement, the same actor being in each scene, it will often shift thematically, and by having a similar line repeated in both scenes. If a character says one thing in one storyline, the movie may shift to another storyline where another character says the exact same thing or something very similar. And this translates beautifully on screen, subconsciously giving your brain a reason to connect the two stories together. Shifting quickly from the over the top "british comedy-esque" tones of the Timothy Cavendish to the somber, beautiful chords of the musician, Robert Frobisher, seems silly, and by any other measurement, it would be, but, here, it works. It really works.
Something else the movie does to let your brain make the transitions more easily is have actors play six different roles in each of the stories. Tom Hanks goes from playing a Doctor on board the voyage with Adam Ewing, to a scientist, to Zachry, a valleysman haunted by the voices of the devil, and others. It's really incredible. Tom Hanks really deserves an oscar for at least his role as Zachry. It's really freaking incredible.
This leads into something I wanted to address and that is the makeup. Yes, at times, the make up is wildly inconsistent (poor Hugo Weaving). But, to me, the makeup was meant to represent a thin veil between the actor and the audience so that the audience would make the connection that it is the same actor playing different parts. In other words, you're supposed to be able to tell that Hugo Weaving is in drag at one point, and yes, it's supposed to be funny in that context. There is also the issue of some of the cross-race casting. Jim Sturgess who plays Adam Ewing in the first storyline also plays a Korean man in An Orison of Sonmi-451, and Hugo Weaving also plays a Korean man, but you do also have Halle Berry and Doona Bae playing white women at one point as well (though the historical and racial implications may not leave the same sour effect in most people's mouths). Normally, this would leave a sour taste in my mouth as well. After all, the implications are that you are taking an acting job from a Korean man who would be able to play a Korean man better than a white man would. However, in this case and in the context of the movie, this idea of casting these actors in different races and genders, works beautifully.
As stated before, the makeup, in my opinion, acts as a thin veil to keep the audience in the loop about what actors are playing who, but it also serves as a commentary on race and gender being social constructs and man-made barriers. Whether you agree or not, this is a core theme in a movie all about the breaking down of barriers. Therefore, in my mind, casting black actors as whites, whites as Koreans, and men as women, really helps to reinforce this core theme.
Overall, Cloud Atlas is a movie all about theme. It dares to explore and break boundaries we set up between our culture and others', between men and women, and between past and present. And I believe at the heart of all of this is the idea: Just be a good person. That even a single act of kindness could have a ripple effect through time. After all, if you saved one persons life now, that person can then have kids, whose actions will affect other people, whose actions will affect other people, and so on. It's a theme that I absolutely adore in a movie, and is a reason that Cloud Atlas just isn't a well-made film but is one of my all-time favorites.
5/5
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