don't watch this film until someone has explained to you what it is about

Rating: 4/10 (26 July 2013)

I picked up this film as a Bluray not having read the book (or even knowing that the book existed) and never having heard of the film. Good cast (especially Tom Hanks), good directors, guaranteed to be a good film, so I thought. The box said something about 6 story lines across several centuries. The story lines themselves were interesting, the special effects were good. But what was the connection between the story lines? I finished the film none the wiser. Only on reading IMDb did it become clear that this was to do with reincarnation and an act of kindness in the earliest story was repaid in the last story line. On a re-seeing I might get more from the film now that I know this. However to my mind a film should be stand alone; it should be obvious at some point what the film is about without prior knowledge and preferably fairly early on, otherwise one spends the whole time wondering what the heck is going on. As with this movie. Don't watch it until someone has explained to you what the movie is about.