- Spoilers - Attempting to explain Cloud Atlas.

Rating: 10/10 (30 October 2012)

Before I start – this review is more of a study and thus is, by nature, full of spoilers. I'm worried that people might not appreciate the interconnectedness and message of the film and brush it off. I actually thought I was going to hate it going in, wasn't sure after almost two hours, then I realized I was in love. So I would suggest, if you plan to read on, see the movie first. One critic, Joe Morgenstern, from the Wall Street Journal spouts "This would-be epic is beautifully photographed, elegantly crafted and adventurously cast. Unfortunately, though, it plays like a gargantuan trailer for a movie still to be made." Morgenstern obviously did not understand the movie. How can he call something elegantly crafted and then claim it has poor structure "gargantuan trailer" in the same breath. Okay whatever, I don't need to diss critics – Cloud Atlas does that in one of the earliest scenes when an outlandish Tom Hanks, playing an lowlife writer who's just published an autobiographical work tosses a critic off of a building. I will say this though. Cloud Atlas is epic. It's more than epic. It's length and pacing are deliberate – you are supposed to be tired when watching it – this is a story that spans generations – if it was an hour and half it would not resonate. The beauty of the filmmaking is that these guys guys and gals get it. Zack Snyder – a talented artist – tried something similar with Sucker Punch, but ultimately failed big time. He focused too much on the visual crap. I loved the story of the girls in the home – but the action stuff was hokey, repetitive and trite. He thought we would eat it up, but the audience has seen it before. Then there's Cloud Atlas, we follow several story-lines ranging from comedy to drama to three days of the condor'esque paranoia, but when it comes to the action, effects, fantasy and hard sci-fi they do it lightly, sprinkling the massive work with seconds here and there. Just enough to leave us satisfied, but little enough to not overwhelm or undermine the complexity of this literature. I'm paraphrasing an incredibly powerful line from the end of the film here: "You can't make a change you'll just be a single drop in an entire Ocean." "What is an Ocean but a countless pool of drops?" This is the controlling idea for the movie: Can one man make a difference? Cloud Atlas believes so. Follow this single drop and watch how it ripples. Tom Hanks drops the critic off of the roof to his death. The death leads his publisher on a hilarious journey where he is wrongfully placed in a mental institution. The journey leads him to write an autobiographical novel in kind, but as he is a talented writer (obviously one who has been neglecting his talent) writes a good book. The book is turned into a movie where in the future a small clip of the movie incites a revolution which makes a person into a pseudo-Deity. This one bizzar drop – or act led a ripple which caused a revolution hundreds of years in the future. In other words, an single persons actions can have god-like effect. Then comes the theme of art or creating. Hank's character was writer. Cloud Atlas was a musical work. Letters between lovers. A Dairy and a video made by a rebel. A made-for-TV type movie based on a book. Each one of these creations of art pass through time connecting people and inspiring them to create ripples: In other words by creating even, the most insignificant works, people might find inspiration. Hell, I felt like writing this review just from seeing the movie. Maybe my review will lead somebody else to write a song, which will in turn ripples. The concept of re-incarnation. Each actor plays myriad parts over a vast amount of time and space. The argument of good vs. evil is explored here. The Hugo Weaving character is almost always evil in the physical sense – Hugh grant in the sense of conspiracy (Basically if your name starts with Hu – you are a bad guy). Keith David is a rebel. Halle Barry represents curiosity or investigation. These characters are archetypical and live within each of us – the most interesting is Tom Hanks who plays both good and bad characters. In his futuristic storyline – he has a personal devil (Weaving) that tells him to do bad things – but he does not! This is because inside us all we are capable of good or bad, it's the decisions we make that define us. In his future story-line he chooses to be good. Ironically V for Vandetta – also written by the Wachowsky brothers has this similar theme of standing up to the man. An incredibly simple scene sums up the entire film. In the comedic story-line, near the end, the old escapees are in a bar having a beer when the cross dressing Weaving (who made it big as a cross dresser in Pricilla Queen of the Desert) arrives to take them back to the oppressive old age home. The little old man, who barely speaks a word (the little voice) stands up and incites a riot. Just as Halle Barry reveals a report that ends a conspiracy or Doona Bae's viral video that incites an uprising that saves the lives of millions. The message here is a little voice can incite a thousand little voices. One singe drop. One single ripple. One perfect movie. If the message of Cloud Atlas is true then I hope that the creation of this film will inspire a million voices to make a million ripples. I for one am inspired. I will add to this review as I let the ripples spread in my mind. For now that's all I got.