Cloud Atlas, based on the book by David Mitchell, interweaves six different stories that are all set in a different time and place. First we follow Adam Ewing, an American lawyer traveling by ship to the Chatham Islands to finalize a business deal for his father-in-law in 1849. He meets a doctor who tries to help him with a parasitic worm that is seemingly eating away at his brain. And then we have Robert Frobisher, a poor gay musician who finds a job working for a famous composer. While working Robert creates his own masterpiece called "The Cloud Atlas Sextet". In 1973, a journalist named Luisa Ray goes to write a story about a nuclear power plant company. She thinks there is a conspiracy going on regarding the safety of a nuclear reactor and begins looking deeper which put her and others close to her in danger. Then in 2012 Timothy Cavendish, a 65 year old publisher, is on the run from the associates of an gangster-like author. While being chased, he finds himself staying at a nursing home in which he must now try and escape from. Then in Neo Seoul during the year 2144, Sonmi-451, a genetically-engineered clone, rebels against those who created and exploited her kind. Finally 106 winters after "The Fall", most of humanity has died. Zachary is a tribesman who helps a woman, whom is member of one of the last remnants of a technology-based civilization known as the "Prescients", find Cloud Atlas. Cloud Atlas is a station where she can send a message to the others who have left Earth and are living on other planets now.
There are some connections that can be found with each of the different stories here, but they are all standalone stories so don't beat yourself over the head trying to make it all fit together. Each member of the cast plays a character in each of the six stories, although you might not realize it sometimes because there are times when you will not recognize an actor that you have been watching for over a decade, because the makeup is most of the time that good. Given how demanding it is to play six sometimes very different characters throughout an almost three hour movies, I thought the cast was really good. Tom Hanks and Halle Berry, whom I love nearly everything they've every done, embody their characters in every story, and continue to bring the goods. But for me, Ben Whishaw as the musician Robert Frobisher and Jim Broadbent as the publisher Timothy Cavendish were both great and I consider these two the standout roles here. As far as the movie as a whole, it didn't have any pacing issues (which I couldn't believe) and it didn't feel like a three hour movie. My only real critique is how often they jumped from story to story, which made it sometimes hard to follow. But visually this movie is stunning and is worth watching for the cinematography alone. So if I had any advice to give before you watch this movie, it's to not go into the theater trying to piece together everything like a puzzle. It won't happen and it will just bother you for many days like it did me. When I finally gave up trying to connect everything, I just thought about the movie as a whole, because originally I was neutral, giving it a B-, but this movie will stay with you for days. So as I thought about the stories it told and how I just could not get it out of my head I had to change my rating.
...AND SIMPLY PUT GO SEE IT AND ENJOY STORYTELLING AT ITS' FINEST. A-
Cast: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon, Ben Whishaw, Jim Broadbent, Jim Sturgess, James D'Arcy, Hugh Grant
Director: Andy Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski
Rating: R for violence, language, sexuality/nudity and some drug use
Cloud Atlas out October 26 is Now in Theaters.
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