A good cinematization of an okay book

Rating: 7/10 (2 March 2013)

It was only weeks before seeing this film that I had read the book it is based on, so I suppose this might have taken away some of the excitement I might have felt had I watched it "unspoiled". Since I was already familiar with the central premise of 6 narratives intertwined and interleaved across time and space, its ingenuity might have dulled on me somewhat, so I will attempt to combine my impression of the plot from reading the book with its cinematic realization.
Although I found the theme of interconnectedness appealing, I never felt that it had been developed to its full potential. I continuously had the feeling that we were building up to some great revelation or insight, which would give meaning to the connections. That is, not an explanation in a metaphysical sense, but a purpose for them in the narrative. We were promised, to quote the IMDb synopsis, "an exploration of how the actions of individual lives impact one another in the past, present and future", but instead the film offers only loose links and similarities, save perhaps for the implication that the same "souls" keep finding each other in different lives.
Some have praised this absence of a message as a strength. They argue that David Mitchell and the Wachowski siblings have done well to leave the story's themes open to interpretation. However, just as a painting needs colours and contours, so does a story require decisions from the narrator to give it definition. In this particular case, I believe, the picture has been left too blurry.
That said, but for a few minor flaws the film is a graphically stunning recreation of the book, especially in the more futuristic segments, which does much to enhance the cosmic scale on which we are meant to see it. The same can be said of the way the different stories are cut together, which is a well-chosen departure from novel. I do confess I would rather have been spared Tom Hanks' attempt at a non-specific English/Scottish/Irish accent (which at times even has hints of pirate- speak in it), as well as the cross-dressing and cross-racial make up of some of the leading actors, all of which seem to have been done in the interest of the connectedness theme, but ends up feeling somewhat forced and more than a little toe-curling. But these are minor complaints which I am happy to overlook when calling this film a remarkable effort, somewhat limited by the story it had to work with.