One hot mess of an epic adaptation

Rating: 8/10 (4 November 2012)

CLOUD ATLAS (2012) *** Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, Keith David, James D'Arcy, Xun Zhou, David Gyasi, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant. One hot mess of an epic adaptation of David Mitchell's novel by the Wachowskis (Lana and Andy) with Tom Tykwer - who took turns directing - involving a meta-verse of six plots interweaved in flashback/forward of how one generation inspires another and vice versea with themes of revolution, self-discovery, racism, ageism, conspiracies, class struggles, science fiction hybrid with fantasy tone poem - phew- among others with its principals doing triple (and more) duties/roles with questionable results (largely the uneven make-up - one rotting nose prosthesis is plenty if you ask me for Hanks!) and a lot of precious, preachy sociopolitical ramifications throughout. While there is a lot of visual effects of jaw-dropping beauty and CGI spotty here and there the end result is a lot of endurance (easily could've dropped 20 minutes somewhere!) and tolerance but oddly enough picks up steam 3/4 thru involving the viewer for its trippy , time-skipping, globe trotting and interlinking crazy quilt of filmmaking the likes of which haven't been seen in quite some time.