Cloud Atlas

US Release date: 26 october 2012
UK Release date: 22 february 2013
French Release date: 13 march 2013

Directors: Tom Tykwer, Andy and Lana Wachowski

Main actors: too many to make a proper list... you will discover their names in the following description!

Clémence:

Did you spot Halle Berry as an ugly male doctor?

Key words: reincarnation, metaphysics, magic, epic, convolutedness.

I should be straight with you: I loved the film so much I went to see it thrice.

That being said, here is the story or I should rather say, here are the six stories:

-          - 1849: South Pacific Ocean. JimSturgess is taking the passage from a British colony to the mother country and is slowly poisoned by his alleged friend, a doctor interpreted by a very ugly Tom Hanks.

Key words: slavery and betrayal.

-          - 1936: Cambridge and Edinburgh. JamesD’Arcy’s lover Ben Whishaw is a young and talented composer who lives and works with an old tyrannical composer interpreted by Jim Broadbent.

Key words: love letters, homosexuality and genius.

-         - 1973: San Francisco. A reporter, Halle Berry, meets a now old James D’Arcy and has to investigate and solve a mystery involving oil and nuclear power.

Key words: plots, suspense, turtleneck sweaters.

-          - 2012: London and Scotland. JimBroadbent, an elderly editor, finds himself trapped in a retiring house and plans his escape.

Key words: humour, escape and old age.

-          - 2144: Neo Seoul is filled with clones. With the help of Jim Sturgess, one of them Sonmi-451 (Doona Bae), might change the world.

Key words: uniformity, love and rebellion.

-          - 2300s: A post-apocalyptic island. Humanity is back to a primitive state. Tom Hanks and his tribe live in fear of cannibals and worship a goddess called Sonmi (rings a bell?), but the arrival of a more evolved human being (Halle Berry) might change everything.

Key words: apocalypse, cannibalism and faith.

The message of the film is that everything is linked. It is the circle of life, literally. Souls reincarnate, good or bad deeds echo in eternity (“What we do in life, echoes in eternity!” Maximus, Gladiator). If the recurrence of the same actors in different roles and the interwoven stories themselves did not make you understand that, the presence of the comet birthmark on a different, important person in each story should do the trick. The comet-bearer is always someone whose actions had significance and influenced the future.

Some people called it messy and snobbishly, excessively complicated, but as you might have guessed from the number of times I saw the film, I really, really loved it. It is visually, esthetically superb. It is captivating, beautiful and moving. The Wachowskis (directors of the Matrix trilogy) and Tykwer (director of Perfume: the story of a murderer) assembled one of the most impressive cast you could imagine and comprising many of the finest living actors who do not have anything to prove anymore: the brilliantly versatile Tom Hanks, the ever-graceful and mesmerizing Ben Whishaw, the stunningly beautiful Halle Berry, a despicable Hugh Grant, the great Susan Sarandon and Hugo Weaving, the irreplaceable Jim Broadbent, the touching Jim Sturgess and James D’Arcy, and the talented and previously unknown to me Doona Bae.

Another argument in favour of Cloud Atlas (if you need another one) is most certainly the music, the consistency of which gives an unmistakable personality to the film as it is made of several variations of the same musical theme. It is wonderful and I really liked the fact that the music composed by the character of Ben Whishaw in the film, the Cloud Atlas Sextet, should be the musical score of the film itself.

I think I got a bit carried away here, so I will simply conclude by telling you to go and see it. The story is epic, the cinematography excellent, the acting extraordinary. You can have fun trying to spot all the actors in their various disguises, and you will most certainly leave the room in a dreamy state, with your eyes filled with stars.

Lo:

Gosh, I felt so stupid... 

I shall be less enthusiastic than my colleague here, the reason being that I was not as mesmerised as her by this nonetheless aesthetically perfect film.

Why is that? Well first, the choice to use the same cast over and over in the several mini-films - though it is a good idea - is not that good! (What is she talking about??). Grrr, let me do the talking! Once you understand that it is the same actors but disguised in several and very different characters, you are caught in an evil game which consists in spoting all the actors in the story. Oh, it is Tom Hanks! Argh, what an ugly Hugh Grant! etc, etc... and from my point of view it is bad, very bad! Indeed, by doing that you spend most of the film doing something else than following the film and in the end: woops, I don't know what this is all about! Not the best reaction the directors are expecting (or maybe it is!).

Secondly, the way this film was edited. I am fed up with all these pretentious film directors who under the pretext to be fashionable are all doing the same kind of films. (What is she talking about??) Grr, what did I say? Well, the fashion is to make very complicated films and to edit them in a very complicated way in order to have a very cooooool film. It could be interesting if it has not been done hundreds of times. Here, the several stories are all interwoven - with sometimes I agree beautiful transitions, very beautiful - but which add a difficulty to the reading of a story which is NOT difficult at all. I may not be the brightest but I only understood the real message of the film after speaking to my completely crazy colleague and for me that is definitely a negative point.

Yet, I enjoy watching this - somewhat long - film and I definitely recommend it to everybody.Who said I was paradoxical? (Grrr)