A feast for the eyes that did not fulfill my appetite

Rating: 7/10 (26 October 2012)

There have been many movies that pushed the envelope in storytelling. "The Fountain" gave us a love story that takes place over a 1,000 year period. "Babel" juggles four plots that happen over 3 continents. The only thing these 2 films have in common is that they revoke the typical, chronological order of storytelling. "Cloud Atlas" takes these concepts further by giving us six stories that occur over many years between them—an 1849 diary of an ocean voyage, letters from a young, naive composer to his friend, a thriller about a nuclear power plant's dark secrets, a farce about a publisher in a nursing home, a clone that takes part in a rebellion during futuristic Korea, and the tale of a tribe living in post-apocalyptic earth in the far away future. Every single genre you can imagine is crammed into this three-hour movie. There is humor, action, drama, mystery, suspense, fantasy, romance, and science fiction.
This movie is certainly unique with the wonderful production values of a big budget Hollywood picture. It does not fail with its stunning cinematography and visual effects, exquisite set pieces and costumes, close to spot on make up design, a marvelous musical score, and an all-star cast that includes: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Jim Broadbent, Keith David, Doona Bae, and many others. Interestingly enough, each of these actors play a character in each of the different story segments of the movie.
For me, it is a film that is hard not to like, for I am drawn to all its talents, yet I cannot consider it as revolutionary or even a masterpiece. The non-linear story structure was not the problem. If anything, it helps the film's pace. It's the fact that there are so many plots and there is no solid conclusion to draw all of them together. Some of these stories clearly relate to one another while others seem to be a fluke to the overall movie. The best that I can assume in my viewing is that since each actor is in each subplot, it is a human evolution or reincarnation of the same person, either succeeding or failing in their individual story. This is a novel idea, but (a) it becomes humorous to see actors play different races with incredulous accents (it's particularly bad with Hugo Weaving as a Korean and Doona Bae as a red-haired Caucasian) and (b) it makes the overall film nothing more than a pretentious, unresolved mess.
I am aware that this movie is based off of the book and I have not read it, so I cannot make a comparison. But from experience in reading books that have been adapted into movies, it is more enjoyable to read a 500-page book with 6 or more plot devices than viewing a three-hour film trying to do justice to such a novel. If this movie were even 4 hours long, I think it still would not be any better. It would have been more of a success if each segment were turned into a separate flick rather than trying to throw all of them together as a whole.
"Cloud Atlas" is not for everyone. The story structure and lack of resolution may put people off, as could the gratuitous sex and violence. It was a feast for my eyes, but it did not totally satisfy my appetite.