Note: This review may contain minor spoilers, including videos of the actors in their various character guises (some which should be kept a surprise for first-time viewers). - Zack
The Wachowskis, Andy and Lana, were discouraged. Their latest film, Speed Racer - a high-octane family action movie - failed to find an audience (years later, it was finally accepted) in the midst of a superhero-ruled summer of 2008. Then, they met with director Tom Tykwer, most famous for directing the entertainingly repetitive Run Lola Run. Sensing a kinship, the three began meeting regularly and Lana Wachowski remembered a novel that Natalie Portman had given her on the set of V for Vendetta, a film the Wachowskis produced.
The novel was "Cloud Atlas", a 2004 book written by David Mitchell. Featuring different characters with different genres across different time periods, both the Wachowskis and Tykwer felt this was something they had to bring to the screen. After taking the multiple plots and characters and condensing them into one script, the filmmakers approached Mitchell himself for permission to move forward. The Wachowskis were fearful of rejection; they had previously dealt with the infamously reclusive and Hollywood-hating Alan Moore, writer of the original V for Vendetta graphic novel (and Watchmen). Fortunately, Mitchell was nothing but supportive and even remarked, "This could be one of the few film adaptations better than the book."
However, one more obstacle stood in their way: getting the movie financed. The Wachowskis and Tykwer often found it hard to describe to studios what exactly the movie would look like. Even after acquiring name actors like Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Susan Sarandon and Jim Broadbent, the studios were still wary. They then decided to seek out non-studio investors in Europe and Asia. When the filmmakers had enough money that they wouldn't put themselves under, Warner Bros. finally agreed to distribute the film in the United States, with Focus Features handling the international release.
1849, The Pacific Ocean. Adam Ewing (Jim Sturgess) is a shipwrecked lawyer dying from a mysterious illness. Ewing desperately wants to return home to San Francisco to see his wife, Tilda (Doona Bae) again. His physician, Henry Goose (Tom Hanks), tends to him daily. Along the way, he also bonds with an African slave named Autua (David Gyasi). Both are more than they seem; one has the best of intentions and the other has much darker motives.
1935, Scotland. Robert Frobisher (Ben Whishaw) is a young aspiring musician working for an established composer, Vyvvyan Ayrs (Jim Broadbent). Challenged by Ayrs to write a new piece of music that he's only dreamed about, Frobisher creates the "Cloud Atlas Sextet", inspired by his secret romance with Rufus Sixsmith (James D'Arcy). However, the music Frobisher and Ayrs bond over may prove to be more dangerous than they think.
1973, San Francisco. Luisa Rey (Halle Berry) is an ambitious journalist wanting to break through a story involving a nuclear power plant mogul (Hugh Grant), whose company is in the process of building a nuclear reactor. She happens upon a meek scientist (Hanks) who reluctantly agrees to help her out, though they are closely watched by a paid assassin (Hugo Weaving). Rey is undeterred and uses her wits and a sympathetic security guard (Keith David) to unleash the truth.
2012, London. Timothy Cavendish (Broadbent) is a tabloid reporter who has just signed a publishing deal with an unstable mobster (Hanks). When the mobster is arrested for murder and his brothers threaten him for a large sum of money, Cavendish goes on the run and takes refuge at a nursing home run by a megalomaniac nurse (Weaving). Mysteriously, no one in charge at the nursing home will allow Cavendish to leave.
2144, Neo Seoul. A young waitress clone named Somni-451 (Bae), working in an underground café, is caught up in a political conspiracy when it is discovered she is the key in a plan of revolution. She meets a stranger (Sturgess) who tells her she doesn't know how important she is yet. Together, she has to outrun her oppressive government in order to survive.
Post-apocalypse, Hawaii. A benevolent islander, Zachry (Hanks), discovers a woman (Berry) who is a member of a once prosperous but now lost society and agrees to assist her in re-establishing contact with her people. Zachry is constantly berated by a being known as Old Georgie (Weaving), the devil to his native people. As they travel, he overcomes his fears and doubts in himself to become a true hero.
Still here? Great. A lot to take in, right? You definitely get your money's worth with this movie. It's good to have the Wachowskis back again making movies; likewise, I saw Run Lola Run in my "Introduction to Film" college course, so I was excited to see what Tom Tykwer brought to the project. Together, the three of them are the only ones to capture this unwieldy novel on film. Each section is told with care and detail that accentuates the actors' performances. Speaking of which, the ensemble cast is fascinating. Every main actor is literally given something to do in each section; keep an eye out for them. Most of their work in the film is under extensive makeup (without any digital add-on assistance). This allows men to play women, women to play men, black people to play white people, etc. The genres in the film are just as diverse as the cast: sci-fi, drama, comedy, romance, thriller. Six movies in one, with a central storyline and universe. Take that, Disney/Marvel!
Different faces, different places. Yet all have the ties that bind: a story about one soul transforming from a villain to a hero. To be fair, there have been films with similar cinematic structure - 1916's Intolerance, 1993's Being Human and 2006's The Fountain. However, none of these films have been done on the modern-day, massive scale that the Wachowskis and Tykwer are bringing to it. It is immense. Regardless of how the film does box office-wise, Cloud Atlas is a happy anomaly: perhaps we may never see a film made like this again, but because we have it, it's that much more special and endearing. It may not grab everyone, and it's really not meant to. Those are willing to accept it on its terms reap the rewards. Again and again and again and again...
P.S. I will definitely have to see this film theatrically one more time. Once to absorb it, once to appreciate it more.
P.P.S. Am I the only one who thinks The Matrix universe shouldn't have ended on the sequels? Let the Wachowskis write/direct more movies centered around DIFFERENT characters in the same universe.
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