Rashid Irani's review: Cloud atlas

David Mitchell’s trippy 2004 novel is brought to the big screen in sumptuous style by the Wachowski siblings (The Matrix trilogy) and Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run). The ambitious adaptation unfolds in six different places and time periods ranging from the Pacific islands in 1849 to post-apocalyptic Hawaii. Rashid Irani writes.

Movie: Cloud atlas
Direction:: Lana and Andy Wachowski, Tom Tykwer
Actors: Tom Hanks, Halle Berry
Rating: ****

Cloud-atlas

David Mitchell’s trippy 2004 novel is brought to the big screen in sumptuous style by the Wachowski siblings (The Matrix trilogy) and Tom Tykwer (Run Lola Run). The ambitious adaptation unfolds in six different places and time periods ranging from the Pacific islands in 1849 to post-apocalyptic Hawaii.

Bookended by segments set in the distant future, the film’s earliest story revolves around an American lawyer (Jim Sturgess) whose encounter with a stowaway has far-reaching consequences. The rest of the mosaic features a famous old composer (Jim Broadbent), a San Francisco reporter (Berry) and a British author/gangster (Hanks), besides other colourful characters.

The writer-directors do a fine job in weaving the narrative strands around a common theme. What’s that theme? The most obvious answer is that it is about notions of reincarnation and a cosmic continuum. The film’s most intriguing conceit is to have the main actors appear in multiple roles, at times even across the racial and gender divide.

The ploy is not always successful since some stars like Hugh Grant are barely recognizable beneath layers of makeup. It also strains credulity to have Hugo Weaving portray a demented nurse. Constantly transporting the viewer to complex new angles of the storyline, the visual extravaganza doesn’t wear out its welcome.