Is karma real? And if so, to what extent can it affect your existence?
In the movie “Cloud Atlas,” these questions are answered. Every significant choice, good or bad, ripples into the life of another character in a future era. That is the simplest way I can put it. I won’t lie and say that I completely understood everything about this very complex film, based off an even more complex novel, but that didn’t mean I didn’t appreciate its intricacies.Since the movie has so much content and multiple stories to connect it with, it’s an extremely fast-paced experience. The 3 hour run time is actually short considering the vast amount of content that the director had to work with. A futuristic Korean rebel tells her story before execution in the dystopian future, an aspiring musician composes a masterpiece in early twentieth century Britain, a journalist attempts to uncover a nuclear power plant scheme in San Francisco in the 1970s, a modern-day publisher attempts to escape a group of thugs, and a tribe fights for survival in a post-apocalyptic Hawaii.
Even if the viewer left the film with no understanding of the plot and a general dislike of the movie, they would be forced to admire the multi-role actor method. This is something I have never seen before. Tom Hanks played a island native living in a futuristic Hawaii, a manipulative criminal, a brutish author, a nuclear scientist, and other cameos, all one movie, across different stories and timelines. The other roles were filled by great actors such as Halle Berry, Doona Bae, Hugh Grant, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, and Ben Whishaw.
“Cloud Atlas” is adventurous, dark, inspiring, happy, violent, and humorous. The computer animation was smoothly incorporated and I can’t imagine how much work was put into the makeup (Weaving played a woman at one point, and I didn’t even realize it until the credits).
My only complaint would be that I struggled to put everything together in the end. I still can’t decide whether if it was my fault or the director’s.If you enjoy movies, and you have a solid attention span, then “Cloud Atlas” in undoubtedly worth an afternoon in the theater. #
