Starring: Tom Hanks, Jim Broadbent, Halle Berry
Inspecting an American-owned plantation in the South Pacific
during the time of the slave trade, a man (Jim Sturgess) falls ill and on his
return home, befriends an escaped slave (David Gyasi). An aspiring composer in the 1930’s (Ben Whishaw) leaves his lover
(James D’arcy) behind to arrange works for an aging fellow composer
(Broadbent). A journalist (Berry) in the 70’s uncovers the underhanded dealings
of an oil company. A contemporary writer (Broadbent, again) gets locked away in
a retirement home by his brother (Hugh Grant). In the distant future, a “fabricant”
(Doona Bae) escapes her life in captivity. Many generations later, a man
(Hanks, again) and woman (Berry, again) search for the mysteries behind
civilisation’s mysterious past. All these events are intertwined throughout a
huge period of human history.
You don’t step into Cloud Atlas lightly. At nearly three
hours in length, this is not one story but several joined together in a
post-modern narrative, confusion being fended off with the distinctly different
settings. As a result, the film is also a meshing of different genres. A
historical drama, a romance, a thriller, a comedy and two science-fiction
stories (one cyberpunk, the other, post-apocalyptic) all make up this film, or
rather, series of short films in which, it jumps between. There are some
definite faults in material, mostly physical. Dealing with a wide cast of
various ethnicities through various settings, actors are often depicted a
different race/nationality to their characters. This is mostly apparent with
James D’arcy who, in trying to look East Asian, looks like the titular villain
in Dr. No (1962), whilst Tom Hanks (who appears throughout as different
characters) provides an Irish accent comparable to Donald Sutherland in The
Eagle Has Landed (1976) in terms of awfulness (not to mention another accent,
where I’m genuinely not quite sure what Hanks was going for) not to mention
Hugh Grant barely attempting to sound American. This is a polarising film and
if you dislike high-concept films where you have to exert a lot of
concentration and thinking, you’ll despise this film. But for those of us who
like a little intellectual meat on the bones, this is well worth a look.
Any new releases or old films you want me to review? Post a comment.
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