310. Cloud Atlas

310. (14 Dec) Cloud Atlas (2012, Tom Tykwer, Andy Wachowski & Lana Wachowski) 33



Ambitious, to be sure, but fundamentally obvious in its themes and hackish in execution. From painfully inconsistent make-up effects to the flat, run-of-the-mill visual effects, even the supposedly stunning look of Cloud Atlas is a letdown. (Jim Sturgess in Asianface is the most obvious mistake, but little of the make-up genuinely works.) There are still human moments that are quite moving in this sprawling, choppy drama. Ben Whishaw's quite good as a tortured gay pianist, but his screentime is limited compared to Tom Hanks, who seems to be attempting to win a different Razzie for each new character he tries on. Hanks' futuristic scenes with Halle Berry (with faux-English involving nonsensical phrases like "true true") are the worst. Were this an appropriate length, it might have made a good Mystery Science Theater 3000.

CLOUD ATLAS

CLOUD ATLAS
Written and Directed by Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer
Starring Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Hugh Grant, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Ben Wishaw, Xun Zhou and Susan Sarandon.

Vyvyan Ayrs: What is a critic other than one who reads quickly, arrogantly but never wisely?

I must be missing the deeper meaning in CLOUD ATLAS, a film so massive in scope that it required three of the most visually innovative directors working today to tackle it properly. I watched six separate stories span centuries and unfold in spectacular fashion before my eyes, and understood pretty early on into its gargantuan 164 minute running time, that all of these stories, although seemingly completely unrelated, were in fact all connected. I’m sure there has to be so much more symbolically going on underneath all the heavy handed imagery and crushing weight of all the prosthetics used in this film, but if there was, it never surfaced to the movie I was watching. CLOUD ATLAS is surprisingly engaging, and at times extremely satisfying, but it insists you invest in it with every fiber of your being at all times, so it can also be exhausting to get through. And by the time I reached the end of this epic journey, I did not find the revelations to be all that worth the effort.

Where to begin when talking about a story that is meant to demonstrate that all stories are connected throughout time? Honestly, I don’t know and thinking about it is making my head hurt. This is my job though so I must attempt this, no matter how convoluted the directorial team, made up of the Wachowski siblings and Tom Tykwer, try to make it for me. A man (Jim Sturgess) takes a stand against slavery and is unknowingly poisoned while on a ship at sea, circa 1850. Another man (Ben Wishaw) writes a sextet that no one will ever hear in 1931. A woman (Halle Berry) tries to take down a nuclear company up to no good in the 70’s. An older gentlemen (Jim Broadbent, the film’s shining star) is tricked into a nursing home prematurely in present day. A genetically engineered woman, known as a fabricant (Xun Zhou), serves food and wonders if there is anything more to life in a dystopian near future (in what I found to be the most compelling of the stories). And finally an old man (Tom Hanks) tells a campfire story in the far away future about when he was young and what it was like to live just after humanity fell. All of this is tied together by the suggestion that each of these stories contains a character that once lived in another time, in another one of these stories.

From what I hear, the book which CLOUD ATLAS was based upon, written by David Mitchell, is even more dense. From what I hear, it also does a better job at showing how cyclical all of our history and connectedness truly is. Having not read it, I cannot confirm this, but a novel does provide a better foundation with which to base this elaborate and ambitious undertaking. The visual adaptation here is more a spectacle than an emotional or meaningful exchange. Even the interconnectedness of it all has to be spelled out to us by having all the actors play several different parts (with varied results). While the three directors are all on the same page visually, seamlessly jumping back and forth between the Wachowski’s future and Tykwer’s past and present, they are all amiss when it comes to tying together the actual feelings that humanize us all throughout time. When they are in the moment, they often get it right, but CLOUD ATLAS, isn’t about just one moment; it is about them all and this is just too big a picture to behold all at once.

ONE DAY

Written by David Nicholls

Directed by Lone Scherfig

Starring Anne Hathaway, Jim Sturgess and Patricia Clarkson

Emma: I thought I'd make a difference but no one knows I'm here

Some connections are instantaneous while others can take years to come together. When it comes to love, there is no simple formula. When it comes to director, Lone Scherfig’s ONE DAY though, it’s all about formula and fortunately, it is mostly a winning one. Scherfig follows up the brilliantly understated, AN EDUCATION, with an adaptation of David Nicholls’ best-seller of the same name, which checks in with Emma and Dexter (Anne Hathaway and Jim Sturgess) on the 15th of July every year for twenty years. Neither love nor life come easily to this pair and watching them grow in glimpses over the years reminds us how quickly everything can slip away if we aren’t careful. Scherfig’s gentle hand allows this high concept picture to transcend gimmick, and Hathaway’s shoddy British accent, to reveal genuine emotion and inspire some pretty real sentiment as well.

By dropping in on this couple but one day a year, Scherfig could have had something terribly predictable and monotonous on her hands. Fortunately though, the much loved novel’s author is also behind the screenplay. As a result, Scherfig has the right material in front of her to balance the mundane and the monumental that is inherent in this premise. Some days go by without anything really happening at all but that’s life. There are some days even when Emma and Dexter don’t even spend July 15th together, as their lives have taken them on very different paths. The very first 15th of July we spend with them is the night of their college graduation. They barely know each other and end up in bed together but nothing happens other than of course the beginning of something beautiful. As the years go by, they each go up and down in mood and success at different times from each other, and both Hathaway and Sturgess are given the chance to grow in front of us. These young talents take on the challenge of spanning two decades and each matures as an actor in the process. By the time the end of the second decade approaches, their understanding of themselves and each other is both impressive and admirable.

The title, ONE DAY, alludes to the structure of the plot but thanks to the yearning for closeness and longing for happiness that Scherfig weaves into this picture, it touches on something far more insightful as well. As each day and each year passes without settling or success, Emma and Dexter strive toward that time in their lives when they will feel complete, whole. They work toward that one day when everything will inevitably fall into place. And while that day may not exist for all or at all, for that matter, ONE DAY will have you believing that it is still coming.