Just simply amazing. Redefines what you can do in telling a story on film.

Rating: 10/10 (18 September 2015)

The Wachowski's Cloud Atlas... Where do I even begin. It's by far my favourite film of 2012, a rousing, titanic epic that's so ambitious it seems to transcend the boundaries of cinema and go to places I've never seen the medium venture before. A film usually transports you to one setting, and captivates, you at least for a while there, if it's lucky. This one transports you to freaking six, wildly different, equally transfixing periods of time in history, each one compelling in its own way. The excellent group of actors all play at least 6 different characters, all reincarnated into different timelines, crisscrossing each other's paths, fighting here, and maybe becoming lovers there, hundreds of years down the road. It's a monumental concept that could have wildly gone off the rails and become bombastic. Despite its lofty ambition, it wields itself in a fluid, cohesive manner, every moment, interaction and intersection of character and fate in service of its momentous, forward moving, intricate chain of events that just demands multiple viewings. I've seen it over five times and still am discovering secret wonders that one only begins to unearth upon careful inspection and loving care in observing its wonders. It's over three hours left long, and yet doesn't drag for one single second, every moment a cog in its own grand design, every detail speaking volumes. The actors are to be applauded endlessly, some of them leaping right outside their comfort zone to bring the tale to life. Tom Hanks and Halle Berry take centre stage and frazzle us with performances that have to be seen to be believed, each portraying different people, Hanks from a psycho Irish boxer, to a sly 1800's doctor, to a creole speaking nomad in my favourite of the stories, so far in the future that technology has fallen and humans resort to earthen, primal ways (cue the welcome Waterworld references). Berry rocks it mostly as Luisa Rey, an intrepid, 1970's reporter laying waste to a corrupt oil executive with nasty plans played by a deliciously smarmy Hugh Grant. Grant is a prick in every single role of his, and you haven't lived until you've seen him play the face painted chieftain of a cannibalistic tribe. Ben Withshaw plays Robert Frobisher (among others), in the 1930's, my least favourite of the segments, a composer responsible for the haunting sextet that gives the film its title, with tragic aplomb that meets the tone of his composition. In a fascist, neo futuristic South Korea, a replicant slave (Doona Bae will bring you to tears) discovers her true purpose, awakened by a freedom fighter played by Jim Sturgess (you'll cry for different reasons when you see the makeup job to try an make him look Asian lol), who also plays an 1800's lawyer on a dangerous voyage home across many seas to meet his beloved (also Bae, in ginger getup). Hugo Weaving particularly stands out as always, playing everyone from a devilish Willy Wonka, to a brutal Korean secret secret police operative, and a role so fitfully hilarious I won't spoil it for you here. Jim Broadbent gets the comic relief in a powerhouse as Timothy Cavendish, a rapscallion publisher who finds himself on a heartwarming odyssey across the UK that brings to mind lighter moments of Monty Python, and is a highlight among the episodes. Starting to get the picture? I could literally got on for pages about how many different people the fearless actors play, but I want to leave it to you to explore the absolute rush of cinematic enjoyment that this is, an emotional blast of adrenaline powered storytelling that flows like galaxies above us. I could also be a moron and try to dissect the themes for you, but I'll instead leave it to one of Susan Sarandon's incarnations, prophetically and eerily imparting to us: "Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others. Past and present. And by each crime and every kindness, we birth our future.". Or as one of Hank's incarnations goes: "Belief, like fear or love, is a force to be understood as we understand the Theory of Relativity and Principles of Uncertainty: phenomenon that determine the course of our lives. Yesterday, my life was headed in one direction. Today, it is headed in another. Yesterday I believed that I would never have done what I did today. These forces that often remake time and space, that can shape and alter who we imagine ourselves to be, begin long before we are born and continue after we perish. Our lives and our choices, like quantum trajectories, are understood moment to moment. At each point of intersection, each encounter suggests a new potential direction.". Like I said, I could ramble forever. Just trust me when I say, it's a special, special film. One that's daring enough to function on its own wavelength that some may not quite be able to tune in to, but for those that can, or choose to, it's a profound work of art that, like I said, transcends the notions of what is possible with this medium and makes us feel something that reaches past the blink of of our mortal lives here, into the deep pool of our ancestral thought and memory, and gives us a glimpse of what's beyond, the hypothetical 'bigger picture', if you will. Or maybe I'm just senile. It's up to you to watch this and decide.