Cloud Atlas

My review: Cloud Atlas

Every now and then comes a movie which one can't watch passively. One has to be really active, using the grey matter to put the pieces together to get a complete picture. Even then one should have done their homework well to aid in which piece to put where. Else when you get out of the theater you would be muddled with confusion of what has happened over the past 3 hours. "Cloud Atlas" is one such movie which teases your intelligence and very difficult to comprehend what is going on, however intelligent one is.

Touted to be one of the most expensive film ever, it is adapted from a novel of the same name by David Mitchell. Written and directed by Tom Tykwer, Lana Wachowski, and Andy Wachowski, "Cloud Atlas" narrates six-stories which happens in six different epochs, each story is a story within a story. Also there are hints that each of these stories which are all true stories have people related to some or the other character from the preceding story or themselves reincarnated in their next lives.

 Though the movie has a more structured narrative when compared with the novel, it is still confusing for an average movie goer. Many may get tired of trying to concentrate hard to find the relationship of what is going on screen. Main reason might be that when one is reading a novel they can take their own sweet time taking breaks in between to decipher what is going on. But here one is bombarded with all these 6 stories within a period of three hours which might get into one's nerves.

There must be movies that tease one's grey matter and make the movie watching an active experience. But there must be reason for it. It should not be done just for the sake of it. If one takes a closer look at the movie it an assortment of six straight-forward stories. It is just the narrative style which makes it difficult to follow initially which also gets easier as the movie proceed.

Almost every actor has more than a role in this movie, aided by top-class make-up and CG work it is hard to identify who is who. For instance except for couple of roles, it was difficult for me to identify Tom Hanks in others. Same holds true for many others too. Tom Hanks is brilliant as ever in all his six roles, some very brief. Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Jim Sturgess, Hugo Weaving and Jim Broadbent, all have substantial roles in most of the stories and have done well in most of their roles. Only sore point is in the 22nd century story where many non-Asian actors are made to portray Asian characters which looks very artificial with amateurish make-up.

Technically movie is brilliant with all its CG work, cinematography by Frank Griebe and John Toll. Background score is good in parts.

On the whole, "Cloud Atlas" is a type of movie which will get only dichotomous opinion from its viewers. Either people will classify it as one of the best or the one which is very difficult to decipher and hence difficult to appreciate. For me its a mixed feeling when the movie ended.

Bottomline: An active movie watching experience.

3.5/5

•