Bold and Ambitious

Rating: 8/10 (25 May 2014)

Based on what was a considered an unfilmmable novel Cloud Atlas is a large, ambitious film that took both the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer to adapt and direct. Cloud Atlas tells six different stories, set from the past to the distant future, all linked by universal themes of truth, justice, life and events from the past effect the future. The framing device is that all the characters are reading about the previous events, whether it's a diary, letters or a recording. A particular strong ideas was how the main character from the Seoul Dystopia is worshipped by a primate tribe as a God in a post-apocalyptic future. There are many links to the different time periods, from the cast, the music and small things like characters having birth marks, showing the contentions between the characters. The Wachowskis' theme of racism shows it head in their stories.
Cloud Atlas is bold film, running for 2 hours 45 minutes and is visually stunning. The scenes of the various stories were perfectly edited together as different characters had to go through similar events. But some of the stories worked better then others and I personally thought the strongest stories were the 1973 nuclear thriller in San Francisco, the futuristic dystopia of Neo Seoul and the post-apocalyptical future. But the story starring Jim Broadbent as a man hiring in an old people's home felt out of place, being too humorous and just a mix of a Guy Ritchie gangster film and The One Flew the Cuckoo's Nest.