Life moves in infinite circles

Rating: 10/10 (7 March 2013)

Many might find Cloud Atlas a daunting movie to consume. It's probably one of the most complex narratives in movie history. But it is also the movie that keeps on giving. There is so much going on, I swear it has everything. Ev-er-y-thing.
Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, James D'Arcy, James Broadbent, Susan Sarandon, and Doona Bae play a variety of characters, and their descendants in a sprawling mega-story spanning many centuries. The South Pacific in 1849, Edinburgh in 1936 and 2012, San Francisco 1973, London in 2012, Neo-Seoul in 2144, and an island 106 years after an unspecified cataclysm feel the ripples of love, tragedy, hope, and imagination as souls are reincarnated with the teasing latent memories of their ancestors written in their DNA.
Across their chain-linked lives Hugo Weaving plays a menacing figure representing injustice determined to maintain the status quo and prevent human transcendence. But, as Dr. Ian Malcolm once said, 'life finds a way'. Humans cannot be contained, not by governments, rules, or any kind of oppression. The drive to push our species forward will always trump all kinds of evil.
The expansive story and lengthy running time will alienate casual movie-goers, and the unusual dialect in the far future timeline will either make the rest hopelessly confused or laugh childishly. I personally had no trouble understanding it. Language, like any other entity, develops or disintegrates over the years, and will especially become twisted and guttural in a world without mass media. Perhaps the haters just couldn't grasp this and decided that laughing at it was the way to endure until the credits rolled.
If you like challenging movies, if you are willing to apply yourself to a rich universe and an ingenious idea I have to admit that Cloud Atlas pays you back a thousand times. Tom Twyker's score is utterly mesmerizing. Not only is it a fascinating movie to look at but it sounds heavenly. It's the music of your dreams, and the movie it threads through is filled with magical moments that will steal your heart away and stay with you forever. I just cannot recommend Cloud Atlas enough.
Many have called it a failure, but I say it's a huge accomplishment. Few directors could have pulled it off, but the Wachowski's and Tom Twyker have delivered a profound epic of human life. Even the haters should admit that.