Deconstructing "Cloud Atlas"

Rating: Null/10 (29 January 2013)

This movie may not be as enigmatic as some have made it out to be. Yes, there are six stories spread over a few centuries, way into the future. But in general, within each story, the narration moves in a simple, linear timeline. Yes, one of these is told in flashback but it is all in the same time frame and the flashback itself is simple linear. Apart from having to follow six strings, "Cloud Atlas" is actually much easier to watch than many of the temporally scrambled movies we've had in the last couple of decades.
The trick here is editing. By necessity, the movie jumps continually from one story line to another throughout the entire some 3 hours of running time. Considering how the order of the stories can be varied and how the length of each segment can be varied, the possibilities are virtually infinite. It is sometimes scary to remember that what we are watching is ONE out of an infinite number of ways this can be done. To be THE BEST out of an infinity of alternatives has a probability of virtually zero. But the end-product we see is certain among the best, if the THE best.
The six stories are connected by one key theme: freedom. In a way, they are all about the underdog's fight for freedom. This is all we need to appreciate the movie. But you must have heard about all the mysticisms of the inter-connection of these stories. In fact, in two of the stories, we see the protagonists watching video recordings made in a previous story. As well there are motifs such as mysterious birthmarks, premonitions, déjà vu. Depending on your frame of mind, you can consider these supernatural, metaphysical or Freudian. It doesn't really matter. How much or how little attention to attach to them will not affect your enjoyment of this movie that has just about everything you want in a movie.
You must have also heard about the mind-boggling multi-role casting. There is a simple way of looking at this: each story has ONE MAIN CHARACTER.
Jim Sturgess is Adam Ewing, an ailing 19th century South Seas traveler who helps a black slave to gain freedom.
Ben Whishaw is Robert Frobisher in the early 20th century, a talented composer assisting a famous but over-the-hill composer who conspires to steal his work.
Halle Berry is an investigative reporter in the 1970s risking her life to expose a horrendous conspiracy.
Jim Broadbent is Timothy Cavendish, a present-day publisher whose windfall makes him target of gangsters. Seeking help from his brother, he finds himself betrayed and sent to an old age nursing home that reminds you of "One flew over the cuckoo's nest".
In future Korea, Donna Bae is Sonmi-451, an attractive part-clone-part-human service industry worker that finally finds humanity and fights for it.
Finally, even further into the future, in post-apocalyptic Hawaii, Tom Hanks is Zachry, a down-to-earth dweller in a village constantly under the threat of barbarous tribes.
These six protagonists are the keys in their own segment, carrying their respective stories. But then, in other segments, they play other characters, from important co-leads to frivolous gimmicky cameos. In their "other characters" they may attempt role that are entirely different from the true selves in gender, race and age. One example is a perfect swap: Donna Bae plays Tilda, Adam Ewing's 19th century, Caucasian wife while Jim Sturgess plays Korean resistance Chang, Sonmi-451's white-knight, rescuer and sweetheart. This just happens to be a simple swap. There are many, many, many other multi-role situations in every way imaginable and unimaginable.
In addition to the above, there are others, appearing in various segments: Hugh Grant, Susan Sarandon, Keith David, James D'Arcy, ZHOU Xun, David Gyasi and Hugo Weaving who play a bad guy (gender-neutral) in just about every story.
This movie is so rich that the consensus is that you should at least see it twice.