Makes 'The Fountain' seem like 'Casablanca'

Rating: 1/10 (10 June 2013)

The multiple lives of individuals are traced across identities and eras. At least, they should have been. In most of the roles in Cloud Atlas, the casting of single actor in multiple roles was presumed to illustrate their connection, but the effect ranges from completely unnoticeable to completely ludicrous. I have not read the novel on which this was based, but the film plays as a collage or DJ mix of assorted bad movies. The editing feat is actually impressive because we don't have to commit to watching any of the bad movies in their entirety. The only story that holds together is in the roles of Jim Broadbent as a famous composer who wishes to steal the films eponymous piano concerto written by an amanuensis. In his subsequent life, Broadbent's character is a struggling publisher harried over payment for a document. There is no other clear analogy between the character's serial lives, and the filmmakers seem satisfied by the discontinuity, hiding actors in ridiculous makeup, representing awkward racial changes, and generally failing to tell the story they are following. It was not necessary to makeup inhabitants of the futuristic Seoul to 'look Asian'. It wasn't necessary for everyone in the post-apocalyptic future to speak like voodoo witch-doctors. I was sad to see these actors used up, choked for stupid accents, and prodded through roles that weren't so badly written as they were played under such incompetent theatrical direction. As an epic failure, this reminds me of Dune, but that wasn't David Lynch's fault. I don't blame Lana Wachowski for becoming a woman, but I might blame her for thinking that her actors identities were as mutable as her own. Honestly, I enjoyed the potential of this film enough to call its failure unforgivable, and it's a bad ad for an author who is worth consideration.