The filmmakers of Cloud Atlas clearly believe that more is better. They give us not one, not two – but six stories spanning six centuries. They give us lots of movie stars: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Susan Sarandon, Hugh Grant and more. The actors each play multiple roles, with Hanks, Berry, Weaving and Sturgess playing at least six each – sometimes playing characters of different genders and different races. There are costume dramas on the high seas of the 1840s and in 1930s England, plus two sci-fi settings – one recalling the high-tech, high-speed Tron and also a post-apocalyptic tribal future. There are even two references to the sci-fi cult classic Soylent Green. Cloud Atlas even had three directors.
Whew.
The six story lines are threaded together so we follow them until all six climax in the final hectic thirty minutes. The six stories are each a series of cliff hangers. As a character in one story falls into peril, the screenplay jumps to another thread, and on and on.
As it manically jumps from story to story, Cloud Atlas touches upon some Big Themes (good and evil, kindness and control, freedom, reincarnation), and we get the brush strokes of a New Agey theology (as if the world needs another theology). This is where Cloud Atlas gets fuzzy. Fortunately, the movie is so rapidly paced, that it never gets pretentious as we jump from story to story.
Is Cloud Atlas fun to watch? Yes, there’s just too much fast-paced action going on, too much eye candy and too many engaging actors for Cloud Atlas to fail the fun test. Is Cloud Atlas a great movie? No, there just isn’t enough coherent substance in there to hook us emotionally. Is it a Must See? No. Would I see it again? No, but I’m glad I saw it once.