Cloud Atlas

Spoiler Alert – There are several brilliant actors in this movie who play multiple characters – upto 6 of them each. We start with the great Tom Hanks who is definitely on his way to an Oscar nomination if not an eventual win that will take him to the maximum Oscars won by an actor in a lead role. I called it a spoiler alert because it is an intrinsic part of the movie.

There is Hugh Grant who has come up with what could be argued as his best performance to date. There is the ever dependable Jim Broadbent whose powerful presence and even more powerful characters take away the sheen from the performances of those who aren’t as experienced as this brilliant actor. And then there is the most under rated of all – Hugo Weaving who looks and acts as sinister as ever.

And I haven’t touched upon the other people in the star cast – Halle Berry, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, Susan Sarandon, Keith David, James D’Arcy – oh the list goes on and on. Needless to say, Cloud Atlas is a movie that owes a lot to its actors. Full marks to the casting directors.

Full marks again to the Wachowski Brothers (or should I say siblings, now that Larry is Lana after his sex change operation) who have collaborated with Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run / The International) after a hiatus of 4 years. And what a project!!! To get David Mitchell’s Epic Science Fiction novel of the same name onto the big screen was a project that – let me stick my neck out here – only the Wachowskis were capable of pulling off.

Cloud Atlas is a complicated series of 6 stories in different time periods from 1849 in the South Pacific to what I could only call as a really distant future. The movie calls it 106 winters after the fall @ the Big Isle. All central characters in each story can be perceived as reincarnations of the central character from the previous story. Each one of them is identifiable through a birthmark that resembles a comet.

Now I haven’t read the David Mitchell book yet but have made a mental note to get my hands on it at the earliest possible. I suggest you do as well. And if you can manage to hold back your patience and not watch the movie till you read the book, it will hold you in good stead for sure. Hazarding a guess – The Wachowskis would have stayed true to the book with some not so subtle changes that are signature to them.

Cloud Atlas is the kind of movie you will watch only if you love Epic movies and are excited about the idea of multiple story lines that are around a central connect of some kind and totally confuse the heebijeebies out of you. If you don’t like such movies then avoid it like the plague. In my books – 8 on 10 and must watch. Will watch again during the week for certain. Loved it!!! Go Wachowskis!!! Definitely top 10 for the year!!!!

Watch the trailer at http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1371111/