Official Synopsis
From acclaimed filmmakers Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, and Andy Wachowski, the powerful and inspiring epic drama “Cloud Atlas” explores how the actions and consequences of individual lives impact one another throughout the past, the present and the future.
Action, mystery and romance weave dramatically through the story as one soul is shaped from a killer into a hero, and a single act of kindness ripples across centuries to inspire a revolution in the distant future.
Taking a book like Cloud Atlas and hoping to translate it into film is a tall task. The Wachowski’s and Tom Tykwer did an admirable job with what they brought to the table. The story starts off with Tom Hank’s as a conniving Dr. Henry Goose, who is digging for teeth on an island that contains skeletons of slaves. His character is identified as the antagonist in this story through his actions, but you don’t know that yet. When approached by Adam Ewing (Jim Sturgess), who is suffering from an unidentified aliment, Goose sees an opportunity. Sturgess’ Ewing, our protagonist in this portion of the film, falls into Goose’s web immediately. Both men find themselves on a ship together, as Goose is trying to cure Ewing’s issues with slow dripping poison. While Ewing is slowly dying, he runs into an escape slave he saw on the island where he met Goose. The slave begs for his help to get a job on the ship they’re sailing on. Ewing has to find a way to help this man, while trying to survive. It’s definitely an amazing story of friendship, one that doesn’t end well.
Fromt that point, we’re transported to the turn of the century.
The story introduces Ben Whishaw’s Robert Frobisher, a secretly gay fellow that is madly in love with a man named Rufus Sixsmith (James D’Arcy). Frobisher is sort of a lost vagabond with talent for music composing. Sadly, he must leave Sixsmith and escape the almost certain persecution of the London community (because homosexuality was illegal during this time period in England thanks to the Labouchere Amendment of 1885 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Labouchere_Amendment). Frobisher finds himself at Vyvyan Ayrs (Jim Broadbent) homestead, a very famous composer, who was suffering from old age. Frobisher does his best to play the protagonist in this story, while trying to find a place in the world for himself — and his homosexuality. Constantly on the run, Frobisher’s story eventually comes to a halt where he must decide whether to continue the chase and risk the life of his lover, or go another unspeakable route.
Then the film shifts to the 70s.
Luisa Rey (Halle Berry) is a reporter trying to score her first big scope for her shoddy newspaper. While making her way out of a party, which she is trying to report on, she gets stuck in an elevator with Rufus Sixsmith (yep, the same one as the previous story — though, he’s older this time). Sixsmith gives her a scoop of a lifetime with a negative energy report for a power plant that is supposed to go live in a few days. The report would have the power plant shutdown, but Lloyd Hooks (Hugh Grant), the president of the power plant, has something to say about that. Rey soon finds her story with the power plant, but also more trouble than she expected thanks to Hooks and his hired gunman Bill Smoke (Hugo Weaving).
Bump up a few decades and we’re introduced to Timothy Cavendish (Jim Broadbent), an ‘in-need-of-success’ publisher, who scores his first huge hit thanks to his so-so author, yet fantastic murderer of book reviewers, Dermot Hoggins (Tom Hanks). As soon as Cavendish’s hit book Knuckle Sandwich (by Hoggins) takes off, Dermot’s siblings show up demanding money, which Cavendish has already spent. Desperate and fearing for his life, Cavendish runs to his brother for help. His brother, Denholme (Hugh Grant), helps him out by putting him in a rest home until he figures out how to escape and live life to its fullest. Timothy Cavendish doesn’t take too kindly to the gesture, or the incredibly abusive Nurse Noakes (Hugo Weaving), and looks to put together a team to break out of the joint.
The movie shifts further up the timeline with a future world that is running off of energy and fumes.
We’re introduced to Sonmi-351 (Doona Bae), whose only job in life is to serve the upper inhabitants of her sprawling city. She is a waitress in a restaurant, who lives the life of servitude. Should she try to escape or disobey, the collar that she wears around her neck will pierce her jugular vein and bleed her out instantly. Her only comfort in life is knowing that she can eventually go into retirement, which is a paradise for all of her kind. Of course, there’s more than meets the eye with everything, especially when one of her counterparts, Yoona-939 (Xun Zhou), leads her into a taste of freedom, which results into her bumping into Hae-Joo Chang (Jim Sturgess). This story is probably the toughest of the bunch, if not the most interesting.
Finally, the film shifts to the end result of the 70s power plant experiment; a decimated world full of survivors. A small village led by Zachry (Tom Hanks) is forced to trust new ways that technology genius, and outsider, Meronym (Halle Berry) brings them. Meronym is in search for a way to turn on old world technology that communicates to other parts of the earth, which is slowly dying. In Zachry and Meronym’s way is a group of literal man-eating savages led by the Kona Chief (Hugh Grant). Zachry must learn to hide or fight, and trust Meronym enough to help save himself, and save his village.
Are these stories enough for you? Well, they’re complicated pieces in a book that had to be put together in some way to form a cohesive and coherent story on screen. For that I think the Wachowski’s and Tykwer kind of stumbled a bit. Had I not read the book prior to this film, I could see the immense confusion that most audiences came away with having. The Wachowski’s and Tykwer seemingly picked apart the stories from the book, put them into smaller pieces and unevenly pasted them together. I don’t mean that in a harsh way, but the moments they drew out of each story had uneven timelines in which the story could be told. What you’re left with is a lot of one story and not enough of another. In addition to this, you also get some pivotal pieces left aside. For example, you never meet Lusia Rey’s boss in the 70s and establish how absolutely dreadful her newspaper is, so that you can understand the enormous magnitude of the power plant piece she is working on. You also never get the full picture of how dangerous and desperate Lloyd Hooks is when he’s trying to cover up the wretched report on his power planet. The finer details help with magnifying the situation our characters are in.
Another example of details being left out is when you’re trying to establish Frobisher’s situation. There is a large amount of interaction between Frobisher and Vyvyan Ayrs’ wife that not only helps put a certain amount of depth into who Frobisher is, but also explains what type of person Ayrs truly is (he is a far more vicious individual than is displayed on screen). Again, these are details that have to make it to the film for audiences to fully grasp these characters — and there are a lot of characters to grasp.
I completely understand the conundrum that the Wachowski’s and Tykwer were met with when they starting putting together this book into a 172 minute film. That’s nearly three hours, but that’s not close to being enough time to get enough details in to make it perfect. To be quite frank, outside of Lord of the Rings, it’s tough to translate a book to film perfectly, as you’ve seen through movie history.
With this said, I thought that the relationships the Wachowski’s and Tykwer built with each pair of characters across time was absolutely breathtaking. I felt that brought the movie’s flaws up a bit, but didn’t absolve them completely. The fact that they used all their lead actors multiple times and asked them to become multiple characters was nothing short of brilliant, and a bit risky. There are times where the men had to play women roles and vice versa. There was a lot going on with these actors, who clearly bought into the film and brought their best work with them — and that makes this movie better. That is what makes these characters work and that is what makes this movie watchable.
Of course, the visuals don’t hurt either.
The absolutely best part of the film that has nothing to do with stories or characters, it is how stunning the visuals of the surroundings were in the film. From place to place, from time to time, you get nothing but visual eye candy that will make you drool for more. Even in the bleak, mechanical world of the future, you still are in awe of how it looks and feels. The environments that the Wachowski’s and Tykwer created were just absolutely gorgeous, and they added a bit more flavor, and engrossment, to the film that was needing some direction.
In the end, the film needed a bit more time and a bit more details to make it into one of the best films of this past year. Because of the uneven storytelling, it really keeps it down. The acting and the visuals make up for it a bit, but don’t completely solve its problems. If you need a reason to watch it, then look no further than those last two items. They’re worth the trouble the trip brings with it.
Having said this, let’s discuss the Blu-ray portion of the film.
As you can already imagine, the visuals lend some great HD moments that remind you why you wanted to go the Blu-ray route in the first place. There are little to no artifacts or graininess. There is absolutely no color banding in the film. The blues, reds, yellows, browns, whites and blacks really do stand out in the film. You’ll be hard pressed to find a movie that contains such a spectrum of beauty. It’s truly one of the prettiest Blu-rays to date, and something that shouldn’t be missed when you’re trying to decide on a fancy way to show off your television’s resolution. Warner Home Video did a damn find job with the HD transfer, and it’s a strong point to the Blu-ray purchase.
The audio comes to you in DTS-HD 5.1, and the aspect ration is 2.4:1.
Finally, here are the features you’re getting with this release:
· A Film Like No Other
· Everything is Connected
· The Impossible Adaptation
· The Essence of Acting
· Spaceships, Slaves and Sextets
· The Bold Science Fiction of Cloud Atlas
· Eternal Recurrence: Love, Life, and Longing in Cloud Atlas
These features are damn good, and compliment the film a bit more. They certainly help fill in the gaps here and there.
“Cloud Atlas” available on Blu-ray Combo pack, DVD and Digital Download 5/14