Cloud Atlas (2012)

Cloud Atlas (R)

"Like Something I Heard In A Dream"

The Wachowski siblings return to the silver screen with another sci-fi mashup, this time starring Tom Hanks and Haley Berry in a sprawling nearly 3 hour yarn that is in fact 6 stories taking place in 6 v astly different time periods, from the 1840’s through now to the far flung future and then beyond. Each story shares the same actor pool just as it shares certain common elements… the titular Cloud Atlas sextet, a shiny decorative button, a book or a feeling between actors. The races, the names the motivations for all characters in all time periods are non-static and are quietly understated (which may lead to some confusion in the beginning but once the story coalesces it is worth the brainpower). One of the stories is broadly comical, ironically with Jim Broadbent as an accident prone editor in financial hot water who must weasel his way out from the danger. Surprisingly this bit of comic relief is much needed and a welcome surprise due to much of the overdramatic angst that drives the other five narratives. The Wachowski’s don’t have “sole” directing credit, they are joined by Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run). They all produce the different story paths seamlessly and it looks like a much bigger film than its budget belies ($140M). However, its beauty isn’t completely unmarked, after all you can’t make an omlete without something being broken. The 70s Nuclear power mystery is a big bore (most likely due to Berry’s inability to carry a film). The choice of Hugo Weaving’s permanent scowl to appear in another Wachoski is far too easy, especially when he plays almost every antagonist in every timeline. His makeup is especially atrocious, which leads me to the strangest/strongest criticism. While I agree with the creators that it is completely within the motif of Cloud Atlas to have human lives intertwining & to have actors portray the other races (Halle and Bae in white face, Hanks as a olive skinned limey, Hugo with Asian eye prosthetics, Hugh Grant in shoddy old man makeup), I also agree that some of their choices were ill conceived and uncomfortable socially. Doona Bae plays a subclass human slave conscripted to work in a fast-food chain in a Korea a hundred plus years from now. She is rescued and captured and rescued and captured all by whites with silly looking eye makeup that make them look no more Asian than an alligator. Absurdly Bae's eyes resembles the fake ones not in the least. Alarmingly the make up looks dangerously close to a racist caricature from a Charlie Chan serial from the 30s. For such a large part of the film taking place in Asia to have only one major Asian in these roles is just appalling. Creative casting or perhaps inventive storytelling would have done wonders to avoid the scandal and the filmmakers obviously had that creative ability, a black mark for sure. This is unfortunate because there is so much to really enjoy here. It is truly a sprawling epic, watching Hanks move from role to role and chew the scenery is fun (especially the jive talking, nerve addled, PostApocalyptic, Evil Tophat Jiminy Cricket listening to Hanks), Broadbent’s catastrophic misadventures spice up the slow parts, the superb editing and crosscutting between these massive and disparate pieces of cinema must have been daunting and it was a delight to see it so well done. It is not action packed, it is not at a snails pace, the stories synchronize at just the right moments then detangle, so then a confused and vocal minority have asked “why does this exist, no overarching truth of good vs evil, no Aesop’s tale waiting between the lines, no sappy tagline that shouts LOVE CONQUERS ALL.” If you were to ask me, I’d say this is a movie about how we destroy ourselves and how we make ourselves better, about trying to be human in an inhuman society, the lower class learning to overthrow the power of its overlords or risk its own destruction, about human industry and greed corrupting its own morality, the damnation of the status quo, about evolution being king. It is Darwinism applied not to just the physical realm but to the spiritual. Or as the movie puts it: “The weak are meat, and the strong do eat”. Amen. Or its just a grand story, people write those too you know.

 7 Epicanthic folds out of 10 (GOOD)