Cloud Atlas (film): An epic undertaking in a very confusing film

Sometimes I like to have a movie on in the background while I do something else at the same time. Just some sort of "background noise" while I do something else in my house. This is how I started this film out by simply watching it a bit while cleaning, doing some typing, and looking at my phone for messages and what not. It wasn't but a mere 20 minutes into the film that I realized that there is no way you can treat this sci-fi movie like this because you are going to be completely confused if you don't give this movie 100% of your undivided attention. There is simply too much going on with multiple timelines and if your attention wanes for just a little while, you are going to be completely lost.

You might end up a bit lost even if you DO pay completely attention.

src

Top-billed actors in this movie are Tom Hanks and Halle Berry, but honestly, that was probably just a judgement call on the part of the producers because there are so many big names in this film, many of which play multiple roles, that it could very easily be considered one of the most star-studded films of the past 15 years.

Originally released in 2011, this one managed to scrape by without most of us noticing. I had no idea it existed until I checked out a list of "underrated films" and saw it on there and figured to give it a shot. After watching it and really struggling to follow what the hell is going on as the overall theme, I can understand why this more than a $100 million production failed to make back its budget despite the massive amount of names in the cast.

src
One minute we'll be flying around at some undescribed point in the distant future and the next we are sent back to a slave ship in the 18th or 19th century, and the next we are thrust back to near pre-historic times. In many of these situations we have the same actors playing different roles and it isn't always terribly evident who they are thanks to cleverly done prosthetics and makeup.

src

NPR described this film as "a film in need of a roadmap" and this is going to be the biggest problem that most people are going to have with this one when attempting to watch it. It isn't evident, or even possible for most people to figure out what connects all these various stories that are going on throughout 7 or 8 different time-periods and even though they do a decent job with explaining that Tom Hanks' character and Halle Berry's are connected via the cosmos no matter when they happen to be alive, the other stories kind of mean to be in the same situation but it isn't always easy to put the pieces together about who they are and why they are connected to the person they are connected to.

I know that by the time I was finished with the movie I understood the message of certain souls being "bound to find one another" over any period of time, but even when this is explained by the narrator, we struggle as an audience to figure out how this has actually happened for most of the characters.

src

Each of the timeline's individual stories are in fact interesting enough, but since they jump back and forth between all of them without any indication as to why they have done that, makes this a film that while enjoyable, gives the audience the sense of "WTF is going on?" throughout the entire more than 2-hours of screentime.

They spared no expense in the creation of this epic film and must have had some grand ideas about how popular and profitable it was going to become even though the science fiction genre is normally a very risky one for Hollywood to take on.

Even if you can't figure out what is going on, it is fun to try and spot the main actors and actresses as they appear over multiple timeline, often with a such a huge amount of makeup on in order to conceal that it is actually them.

src

One thing that is kind of humorous is that Tom Hanks plays the role of several people who do not have an American accent in this movie and while I think Tom is a very good actor, he really should shy away from roles that require this because I don't think he has ever pulled off an accent other than some variety of an American accent at any point in his career.

src

Even though it only happens for a few minutes, he does play the role of Scottish author Dermot Hoggins and has to speak and yell in a Scottish accent. Especially when shouting, his accent is extremely bad and just seems out of place. I would be willing to bet that they worked with him for a while trying to perfect this but in my experience speaking with a foreign (to you) accent and shouting in one are two completely different situations. I recall even in Forrest Gump how Hanks would break his fake "Forrest Accent" when he would need to talk too loud and even that was noticeable. With this in a Scottish accent, his shouting is American, and his low-voice is a bad Scottish accent. It's worth seeing because it is really bad.

Come to think of it I don't think there are any American actors that have made a job of doing accents in any films that they do convincingly. The only two roles (not persons necessarily) that come to mind are Brad Pitt in Snatch and Leo DiCaprio in Blood Diamond. In the reverse situation though, there are plenty of actors and actresses from around the world that pull off flawless American accents. There must be a money reason that this is the case.

I believe that Cloud Atlas could have been a lot better if they had reduced the scope of it and deviated from the source material a bit. By "deviate" I don't mean change the overall story, but instead to eliminate some of the parts of it that don't actually contribute to the overall connection between Tom and Halle's various characters. I realize that they are trying to show that there are more than just these two that are connected, but they at the same time focus very heavily on those two, so why bother clouding the waters?

Should I watch it?

That trailer features one of the aspects of the movie that is fantastic: The score. The music in this movie is amazing as is most of the cinematography. A lot of it is haunting in how well it is done and is something that will stick with you long after you finish watching. There are certainly a lot of good aspects of this movie but ultimately I think that most people are going to find this boring not because the story, the cast, the music, and the scenery is bland or boring but simply because they are going to be rolling their eyes and confused the entire time about what the 'ell is actually going on.

This is one of the most difficult to follow movies that I have ever seen and even as a staunch sci-fi fan I seriously struggled to figure out what I just watched when it was finished. During some of the scenes while the movie was still on, I just threw my hands up in defeat and just accepted that I wasn't going to "get it." This seems to be a big problem with the overall consensus about this film from both critics and normal audience viewers. They just tried to take on too big of a job an despite having a ton of money to throw at it, they were unable to deliver an product that could be understood by most of the people who watched it.

I suppose if you were up for a visually appealing mental challenge this movie could be great and it certainly has re-watch value because I would say there is very little chance that almost anyone is going to have the entire plot figured out with just one go through.