Connections Are Us

Rating: 9/10 (15 May 2013)

We follow 6-stories that seem to reflect reincarnated people with the same birthmark and this is supposed to be proof of that. The main theme is: "our lives are not our own, we belong to each other, past and present" as stated by Doona Bae's character Sonmi 451. This is to say we are all connected.
We see slices of life within these stories and it takes a while to make some sense of things we can relate to. We go on an ocean voyage where a doctor is trying to get the key to a strong box full of gold; a gay composer writes letters to his friend and contemplates suicide; a murder at a nuclear power plant; a publisher as a prisoner in a nursing home put there by his brother; a Korean rebel – Sonmi 451 - in the future, who may be the key to saving the world; and we see Zachry (Tom Hanks) a Polynesian tribesman who has contact with Meronym (Halle Berry) who is from another planet.
Many of the stars in here play a character in all six stories. You can make a game of it trying to decide which stars you recognize with all the makeup, prosthetics, wigs and costumes. Here are some of the other names: Jim Broadbent, Susan Sarandon, Hugo Weaving, James D'Arcy, Hugh Grant, David Keith.
The acting and visuals and CGI are most impressive. What was annoying was the pidgin English dialogue when in the tribesman Zachry stories. Oh, they sounded good, almost poetic, but we came away with: Whadee say? Whashe say? See? When Zachry needed to know the truth about something, he would say: Tell me the true true. Okay we got that, but that was the easiest of all the pidgin English we heard.
The only story I found most interesting was with Doona Bae's rebel character Sonmi 451 who was protected by Hae-Joo Chang (Jim Sturgess) who behaved like James Bond in his efforts. He knew Sonmi 451 was the only one who could save the world, a world gone mad with oppression. Later when she was captured and her Interrogator says to her that she must have known she could not win and why persist? Sonmi 451 agrees but says the truth must not be hidden. The Interrogator then says suppose no one knows and she replies: someone will come along and know. She knows she will be killed and she is not afraid because "death is just another door opening."
As far as I was concerned the other 5-stories were okay, but not as important as Sonmi 451's story. Why the title Cloud Atlas? The theme here is that we are all connected as are clouds we see and sometimes we see images, and stories within these clouds.
This movie is about 3-hours long and we don't get bored, but we wished some stories were shorter than they were. In those stories the birthmark was the only thing connecting all to reincarnation, but there was no apparent connection to the story of Sonmi 451. Unless one could take a giant leap and say that oppression was in their future. Maybe I missed the birthmark on Sonmi 451. Hmmm.
The movie starts out with Zachry and we think this is the beginning like he is in the BC time-frame era, but he is not. Zachry is in a post- apocalyptic world and oppression was not in his future, as he went to that other planet with Meronym. See? A happy ending for him. What about the rest of us? Woe is us. Hey, we are left behind. Any help out there? Anyone.? (9/10)
Violence: Yes. Sex: Yes, 3-instances, all hetero. Nudity: Yes, 2-instances, and a male backside. Gays in bed: Yes. Disturbing images: Yes, 2-times, a character puts a pistol into his mouth. Language: Yes.