cloud atlas

movies:  Cloud Atlas is the new movie made by the Wachowskis, creators of the Matrix trilogy.  It is a very bold story, much like The Matrix (I swear I will only mention those one more time at most.).  It tells a story of life's connectivity, spanning untold centuries and six different stories.  The story follows actors more than it does characters.
Cloud Atlas is six stories beginning in the middle of the nineteenth century on a ship, that begin(chronologically) out on the seas for slave trade or something to do with Darwin - it is at times hard to tell, and end in some unknown future (106 years after the fall).  It also dabbles in times in between.  The life on the the ship in 1849 is those of aristocrats invaded by a man posing as a doctor and a slave freed by the son of the family who runs the ship.  The next is the story taking place near the turn of the century about a young man who goes to study with a composer in his later years who used to be considered one of the worlds greats looking to create the greatest song every composed.  The next is in England in the middle of the century about a man who is a publisher who was committed to a home, by his brother unbeknownst to him, plotting his escape.  Then we follow a woman in the 1970s uncovering corporate espionage.  The final two are the most closely related in plot.  Those are the story of Neo Seoul in 2144.  A world where people are manufactured for work and unceremonially disposed of(killed when they are no longer useful), while a revolution is building against this ploy of the government.  The other is the story after the fall where they people now live as savages and pray to the woman who was the focal point of that attempted overthrow in Neo Seoul, which leads us to believe that these two times are not too far apart although they could be.
With all of these stories going on at once, Cloud Atlas starts as something of a mess.  The inter-cutting of stories and timelines is just confusing and poorly put together.  It may have been necessary though.  The book upon which it is based, by David Mitchell, it told one story at a time.  This would have been almost impossible to convey as a narrative on film considering the scope of the story and the abstract message it looks to convey.  Once the viewer gets oriented to each story, the film seems to find its way.  Each particular story begins to flow better within itself as you see the pieces of each fall into place.  The greater concept of the story also becomes visible as well.  That concept is that life is always connected.  Whether it be in terms of the life we are living in the moment and the way we connect to what is going on around us or that as time passes and life and death comes and goes those connections carry through time from one life into the next.  That someone else will find in the connections in their lives that we have found in our own.  And that those connections are always human.  For it is certainly not the plots that bind this film together but the characters that throughout time find themselves and each other and are willing because of their interactions to be compelled to fight for what they believe in, whether it is survival from sickness on a shipping vessel or the composition of the greatest song ever written or the uncovering of corruption or freedom from captivity or the discovery of love and purpose or just the ability to keep on living when all hope seems lost.
The thing, as I stated before, that holds this movie together is the actors.  What the actors bring to this movie is both remarkable and unique.  Most of the actors in this movie are forced to play as many as six roles.  In doing so we see stars such as Tom Hanks and Halle Berry, as well as somewhat less known actors like Jim Sturgess (most known Across The Universe and 21) and Jim Broadbent (most known for playing Horace Slughorn in the Harry Potter movies) and Keith David (who has been in just about everything ever made, seriously look it up) show off the maximum amount of range in one movie by literally changing character from scene to scene.  The change in their emotions, from hero to villain  in accent, and most noticeably in makeup are just astounding.  Without a cast of actors capable of doing so, the movie would have never worked.  I couldn't help but also notice that these actors were, despite their ability to adapt, still noticeably themselves.  That quality was also essential to the movie.  Tom Hanks has never been doubted as a great actor, but if he were not recognizable as himself from scene to scene as himself then continuity and message of the movie would have been lost.
In the end I found the movie hard to put my finger on.  The acting was impressive while the actors themselves were at times distracting.  The movie was visually compelling while the structure of it was at times a total mess.  I guess if I had to put my finger on it I would call Cloud Atlas so ambitious that it was impossible to get totally right.  The message of life carrying on beyond mortality was very eloquently presented, but like in the Matrix (see I told you only one more time) did not at all emotionally resonate.  And while the movie was character driven, the message overpowered the relationships that could have provided that emotion.  I think if I had to lodge my biggest complaint it was that, when presented with six fully developed worlds with full developed characters, I found myself wanting two hour movies centered around a few individual settings rather than the hodgepodge that was presented to us. A messy movie no doubt, but certainly with enough to keep me  happy.  Now I just want those three individual movies instead of the Cloud Atlas sextet.