Cloud Atlas (2012)
Certified: 16
Duration: 171 minutes
Directed: Lana Wachowski, Andy Wachowski, Tom Tykwer
Starring: Tom Hanks, Jim Sturgess, Hugh Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Halle Berry, Susan Sarandon
KRS release

Cloud Atlas, an adaptation of the 2004 novel of the same name by David Mitchell, is the most expensive independent film ever made and it looks amazing.

The costumes are striking and add layers to the production

Bringing together the Wachowskis (The Matrix trilogy and Speed Racer) and Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run) was inevitably enough going to bring something unique to the big screen. Their main challenge was to translate the complex and ingenious structure of the novel on to film but they do this in an excellent manner.

Cloud Atlas follows seven different stories, set in different time frames, starring recurrent actors/characters.

In 1849, in the South Pacific, American lawyer Adam Ewing (Jim Sturgess) is about to meet Reverend Gilles Horrox (Hugh Grant) on business matters. There he is shocked by how the slaves are treated, particularly by Autua’s (David Gyasi) whipping. He also has to survive Dr Goose’s (Tom Hanks) machinations.

In 1936, in Cambridge, England, and in Edinburgh, Scotland, we meet Robert Frobisher (Ben Whishaw), a bisexual English musician. He works as an amanuensis to composer Vyvyan Ayrs (Jim Broadbent) while composing his own musical piece The Cloud Atlas Sextext. When he is blackmailed by Ayrs, and having read Ewing’s journal, matters escalate.

In 1973, in California, journalist Luisa Rey (Halle Berry) meets Rufus Sixsmith (James D’Arcy) who had been Frobisher’s lover and who is a nuclear scientist. He tips her of an impending nuclear incident. Rey finds the letters written by Frobisher to Sixsmith, including the Ewing story. The world derails once again as a plot escalates.

In 2012, in the UK, Timothy Cavendish (Broadbent) is a publisher who gets involved with a gangster author that leads to him being tricked and locked in a retirement home. Here he receives a manuscript with Luisa Rey’s life and so he writes his own life story.

In 2144, in Neo Seoul, clone Sonmi-451 (Doona Bae) is treated as a slave and worse. After seeing a film about Cavendish’s life, she is inspired to lead a rebellion and make a public broadcast.

In The Big Island, 106 winters after a nuclear holocaust, Zachry (Hanks) lives with other tribesmen who worship the goddess Sonmi. He is visited by Meronym (Berry), a prescient who wants him to guide her to Cloud Atlas, a communications station.

The final time frame is decades after this and serves to tie up all the stories.

First off, one has to applaud the production for delivering such an ambitious film.

It starts off slowly but after the first hour, the strands start to fall into place and a sense of coherency kicks in.

I really enjoyed the fact that the film has an unhurried pace to it, letting one literally immerse himself in the picture and wander through its magnificent maze of visuals, emotions, settings and characters. I was amazed by the visual flair, even though with the directors’ background, this should have been a given.

It should also be noted that this is the first film that Larry Wachowski, who has undergone a sex change operation, is directing under his new name, Lana.

Special praise is to be showered on the make-up artists as the actors we know so well change looks in ways one would never expect.

The costumes are striking and add layers to the production. The cast is uniformly good.

This film is very hard to describe, and it’s only when one sees it, and its unique structure, that one can really appreciate it.

I would compare Cloud Atlas to a trapeze artist, who is always on the verge of tipping over, yet manages to walk the tightrope just fine.

I refer to this film as an experience, which is becoming even rarer these days, as each subsequent film becomes more and more of a commercial venture.

It also defies the odds and despite its complexities, Cloud Atlas manages to tie everything together and ends in a very satisfying manner.

The film also delivers the message that whatever our deeds, we are all the same.