Cloud atlas, simply a must see...

Rating: 10/10 (31 October 2012)

The novel by David Mitchell was in itself, amazing. Handling all the time lines portrayed in that story would be a near-impossible task just because of the sheer complexity. But that is where we must praise the trio of Tom Tykwer and the Wachowskis for making one of the richest epic movies seen recently, spanning a lot of centuries. Cloud atlas is in my opinion, one of the best movies of the year, or probably the whole decade.
Though the story does revolve a bit around the concept of chaos theory and the butterfly effect, each segment/time line in itself was very well- made and even their combination was a perfect fusion. I mean, the screenplay was nothing short of amazing, though it felt a bit like a Kubrick movie sometimes for the incredible care for detail the directors took. The movie might take more than one viewing to understand it better. In the three hours of its runtime, there was not even a single second that was wasted or was passive.
The actors had done an amazing role in the movie. All of them, Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Ben Whishaw, and others too. However, a special mention goes to Hugo Weaving, who appears in multiple roles in the film and every time he appears, he manages to make a powerful character portrayal. He was in this movie, as yet another reviewer has pointed out, a genuine show-stopper. The soundtrack was another character altogether. It was just right for the movie and was very well made.
Part of the movie's perfection, apart from the fact that it was made based on the novel was the fact that the adaptation was carried out indeed very efficiently. By the end of the movie, when(or if, for the first time viewers) you see the connection between the happenings across the centuries, you will understand the effectiveness of the movie and how well it portrays our world for what it was, what it is and what it could be.
Cloud atlas is a must-watch for everyone who loves intelligent movies that really make you think and have a long running time (near three hours). I shall even go as far as saying that the movie presents a rare opportunity of making us see how our actions are not as trivial as they seem and everything in this world is, after all, connected.
An incredible movie. And, oh did someone just say 'Oscar'?