Cloud Atlas

Wow, is this a confusing film.

It's a good confusing film, but still...

The film jumps between a series of characters that are loosely related, with the same core group of actors playing parts in each. From what I've heard this is due to reincarnation of souls or something similar, but the film does a very poor job of explaining that. The periods and a brief synopsis is:-

1849 - A lawyer travels to the South Pacific in orde to purchase slaves for his father-in-law, but falls ill on the journey home. His story is in a book being read in

1936 - by a young composer who is working with an ageing great to record one last work. He writes of his time in letters to his boyfriend who in

1973 - is a murdered physisct associated with a nuclear plant in San Fransisco who manages to pass his concerns to a journalist. The stories of her investigations are written as a draft in

2012 - given to a literary agent who has to go into hiding to avoid paying money owed to a gang whose leader is the subject of a surprisingly popular book. A clip of the film of his exploits is used in

2144 to awaken the awareness of a 'fabricant', a genetically engineered servant/slave, who lives under a Dickian regime in Neo-Seoul. Her revelations lead to her being seen as a god

109 years after the fall, a post apocalyptic, society reverted period several hundred years later. A cowardly tribesman decides to help a technologically advanced visitor to reach a culturally forbidden mountaintop, despite the visions he's having of the devil telling him it's a bad idea.

Overall, my favourites are the 73 China Syndrome adaption and the 2144 Blade Runner homage. The 1849 other-side-of-Austen seemed quite superfluous other than reflecting some of the themes from later segments towards the end. I strongly dislike the farce that 2012 mostly resembles. The other two sections are decent enough.

Know that there's been some controversy about the use of white actors as Koreans in the 2144 sequence, but I felt it was handled well, and more importantly was done in reverse, with Korean actors playing white characters.

This is a film that I want to see again. Mostly because I reckon that if I do, I'll probably understand it at lot more...

7/10 stars