When The Matrix siblings and the director of Run Lola Run
team up for a movie, it’s got to be based on a time-jumping, genre-mixing,
multi-character novel that deals with reincarnation.
Yes, it is a narrative mess, but worthwhile to see how it
unfolds. The book by David Mitchell was able to keep scene transitions smoother
thanks to the space to breathe afforded by literature; but as a movie, it jerks
back forth, leaving you out of breath and whiplashed by the end. The actors are
top-tier and all performances are great, especially Boona Yum as a
clone-waitress in a future world.
The movie also has a transgender undercurrent, which can
probably be directly linked to one the filmmakers’ recent transformations. The
voice of Lana Wachowski (previously Larry) can be heard in Cloud Atlas’s
subtext of freedom and in the gender swaps between male actors and female
characters and vice-versa. The prosthetics used to achieve this gimmick become
distracting, but the gender-crossing of actors is a daring and fresh approach.
By the end, however, the many faces of Halle Berry were making me dizzy…
Overall, Cloud Atlas doesn’t quite reach the grandiosity or
depth for which it aimed, but it keeps up the pace all the way through and it
might give you a thing or two to think about as the credits roll.
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