Epic bonus, but something's missing...

Rating: 8/10 (1 December 2012)

I love epics, but they can be a drag - if you have to wait too long for the resolution of a story you can make a good guess at, the pleasure of watching a well developed story can turn to pain. 'Cloud Atlas', however, never runs into this dilemma because it presents six movies bundled up into one, set in time-lines from 1849 until a dystopian future. What could have been confusing is held together quite nicely by the overlaying theme of reincarnation and - perhaps more importantly - purpose: no individual effort, as hopeless as it may seem, is ever in vain, as it transcends the time to influence the actions and feelings of others, like music does (the title-giving 'Cloud Atlas' sextet).
The way the stories are edited to meander into another is definitely the most interesting aspect of this largely German production - it's kind of rewarding to see about a hundred million of our tax dollars spent on an honest artistic effort, rather than the bottomless pit formerly known as Greece. And still, notwithstanding the great ensemble acting, some of the stories work better than others, which suffer from a bit of oversimplification and predictability. Top of my pick would be the present-day set retirement home escape plot featuring a brilliant Jim Broadbent, because it's keeping to the essentials and still features quite a few surprises. The Hawaii-set post-apocalyptic bit is also impressive due to a somewhat logical (if from my perspective pessimistic) conclusion. And this story also features Hugo Weaving's best part.
Less convincing to me, however, was the futuristic part; the replicant, pardon, fabricant played by Doona Bae - who does a great job reminiscent of her part in 'Air Doll' - too strongly recalls 'Blade Runner' topics without devoting sufficient character development time. And the look is way too similar to 'Matrix' - the Wachowskis would have been better advised to go for an unestablished style, because this way, you can't help trying to associate the story with 'Matrix', since you're visually coerced to do so. And because of this, the 'Messiah' aspect of the story feels overplayed and out of sync with the more lyrical parts of the movie. The composer bit set in 1931 also felt a little shallow, kind of like 'Let's add a bit of Merchant-Ivory E.M. Forster flair here for contrast'. Too much focus on style, not enough focus on acting credibility, as is mostly the case in Tykwer's international oeuvre.
But all in all, it's definitely one of the more intelligent and yet entertaining outings this year: It's never boring, and it's never dumb. It's just not quite a masterpiece. As far as anti-progress stories are concerned - and you'll notice that all six stories in 'Cloud Atlas' are in some respect anti-progress -, nothing beats Mel Gibson's 'Apocalypto' in my opinion. As far as time jumps are concerned, 'Mr. Nobody' by Jaco Van Dormael is far more elegant - a must watch if you liked this film. And as far as opulent visual style is concerned, 'The Fall' by Tarsem is far superior. Still, watch it on the big screen while you can, because epics are rare cinematic pleasures these days, and usually the German Film Fund doesn't have this kind of money.