CLOUD ATLAS is a multi-layered mosaic with mixed results but overall, A for Effort

Rating: 7/10 (12 February 2013)

CLOUD ATLAS is a multi-layered mosaic,sometimes plodding, sometimes frenetic, spanning various centuries, with top-drawer names in multiple roles. If you get past the sometimes unintelligible dialog of Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Susan Sarandon (others speak more clearly), and the yawn-inducing slow pace of the film's first half, much can be enjoyed from the directorial trio of Andy Wachowski and Lana Wachowksy (helmers of the MATRIX films) and Tom Tykwer, as an experimentally ambitious project. We are given a kaledeiscopic ride of history, romance, villainy and intrigue, and lends us ponderous insight into the workings and vagaries of the human soul (and human mind). The story arcs overlap and intersect, some with bittersweet endings, others with catharsis and hope. The sci-fi subplot (with medieval Hanks and alien-like Berry) goes on a bit too long, but the other stories fare better. Comic relief comes deliciously from Jim Broadbent, as is villainy from Hanks and MATRIX costar Hugo Weaving. The sets are fantastically designed and the music, throbbing, is excellent