Cloud Atlas Film Review

Cloud Atlas is a film containing six separate, but still connected, stories. The set up may prove challenging for many to follow, but if you are able to, you will find yourself ever-curious. It begins with one of Tom Hanks's older, bald and bearded characters narrating. The next times you see him, he is a doctor in the 19th century, a scientist in the 20th, a criminal in the 21st, and more. Halle Berry holds a protagonistic role as a reporter in the late 20th century; Jim Broadbent plays an old publisher sent to a prison-like old folks home in the 21st; Jim Sturgess is an explorer to the Americas in the 19th; and Ben Wishaw is a musician in the early 20th; and all of these actors play multiple roles as a new, supporting character in a few, and sometimes all, of the six stories.

The movie sits at a daring 171 minutes in length. And you thought Star Wars films were long. This is borderline Lord of the Rings, but you get six separate stories out of it.

One thing for sure is that each protagonist shares a birthmark with the next, showing a physical connection over time. Of course, this is more symbolism than anything. The protagonists are quite different, but what remains the same is the world around them, even throughout time. It is the idea of conflict. This story is adapted from the book of the same name by David Mitchell, who said "the book's theme is predacity, the way individuals prey on individuals, groups on groups, nations on nations, tribes on tribes."

There is so much about this film that cannoy be simply said in a review. Each story, in itself, is beautiful; put together, these stories tell the story of Humanity, and even that is beautiful. Aside from story itself, each of the actors play their separate parts amazingly well. It's almost like a play on acting as a career: one person going from role to role, like the characters in the story: one soul going from time to time, place to place, people to people.

Cloud Atlas is art in film, truly, and unlike so many. Unfortunately, Cloud Atlas may be overlooked due to many factors, including but not limited to: its length, the time it takes from opening to climax in each individual story, and the taboo themes it presents. Nevertheless, I see a masterpiece.

9/10

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P.S.: I enjoyed having Thanksgiving with my family in Florida, and reading Paper Towns by John Green on all of the lengthy, crazy car rides. *Sigh* I <3 Margo, too.