Cloud Atlas movie review- Ambitious, brilliant, epic!

Rating: 9/10 (27 October 2012)

No movie in 2012 will split audience opinion as diametrically as Cloud Atlas. Some will find it ambitious, exhilarating, brilliant cinema, other will find it a ponderous mismatch of form and substance. Either case, it is a movie that is guaranteed to remain unforgettable, and if you, like me, belong to the former club, it will warrant multiple viewings.
Great source material is an essential ingredient to great movies- Cloud Atlas is based upon @David Mitchell's heady 2005 novel that chronicles six stories in different time-lines spanning over 600 years blending genres and tones to show the human soul moving from century to century, and explore how our actions in one life affect the next. While the stories in the book are linear, with one story ending leading to the next, the movie adaption takes liberties in narrative continuity, weaving the different story lines together adroitly to illustrate the interconnectivity of life in a way that may be confusing to start with, but rises to dizzying heights of creativity pretty quickly.
Chronologically, the tales start from mid 19th century where a would be slave trader has a life changing experience, to a distant post apocalyptic future where a cowardly tribesman guides a researcher, and segments in between times that include a gay musician trying to make a name for himself, a crooked publisher who gets served, a journalist investigates a nuclear power plant, a clone who seeks self actualization and in effect sparking a revolution in a dystopian Seoul in 2144 (my personal favorite). Not all the stories are outstanding, but all ARE involving in their own way. And what makes the movie more demanding than the book is that the same set of actors plays different characters in different stories as a result of which we see the faces we know so well going through the universal themes of greed, oppression, hatred, and redemption, and personifying that regardless of the time, the core human values of love, courage and freedom remain the same.
Much of the movie's genius is due to the actors, and with an A-list ensemble star cast comprising of Tom Hanks, Jim Broadbent, Jim Sturgess, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon among others, you really cannot go wrong. Sometimes almost unrecognizable due to their excellent make-up, these titans do an excellent job in making the audience feel the range of emotions they go through, and believing in their predicament and the choices they face. My personal favorite here again was Hanks as the evil Dr. Henry Goose and cockney author Dermot Hoggins.
The Wachowski brothers, oops, can't say that any more as one of them has had a sex change, - Lana and Andy Wachowski are no strangers to futuristic cinema, but this movie is not just that genre- this is an epic adventure drama played across a canvas spanning many centuries and the sheer orchestration of this scale and characters is a wonder. The Wachowskis paired on this one with Tom Tykwer who gave us the classic Run Lola Run, and this time traveling, globe hopping extravaganza is not only a feast for the eyes, but also has moments of tenderness, humor, and suspense. Bottom-line- Cloud Atlas is surely easier to watch than to explain, so do not feel bad if you walk out of the nearly 3 hour long Cloud Atlas with more questions than answers- this is the kind of cinema that makes you think and ask questions now, and also 10 years down the line. Go on, enjoy some extraordinary quality cinema- 9/10