I went to see Cloud Atlas
October 28th, 2012
Troy was gone all this past week for work which is why, when he suggested I should get out of the house by myself for a couple of hours today, I went to see Cloud Atlas. I was intrigued by the preview when I first saw it a couple of months ago, and then Roger Ebert gave it four stars and said he knew he would want to see it more than once. That meant if I saw it once by myself and then got the chance to go see it again with Troy, I probably wouldn’t mind a second viewing. (Not that I usually mind seeing movies more than once. I saw Pitch Perfect three times at the theater in the first week it was out and that is far from the first time I’ve seen a movie more than once *cough* Avengers *cough* at the theater.)
I happened to be wearing my Harry Freakin’ Potter t-shirt from LeakyCon today. (That video becomes relevant around the 6:15 mark.) The guy taking tickets did a double-take, then grinned and said, “Hey, I like your shirt!” It was the first time I happened across a geek in the wild who got the reference, so that was kind of cool.
Anyway. My two-minute bulleted review of Cloud Atlas:
- Cloud Atlas is a wonderful movie. It’s gorgeous to look at and full of thought-provoking dialogue and quotable lines. The intertwining plot lines span hundreds of years and include the same actors in different roles, sometimes with heavy makeup and prosthetics and different accents, and even one or two gender-swaps. The universal desire for freedom and the importance of connections between individuals are the themes that run throughout all the stories.
- All of the above is true, but it doesn’t really describe why the movie was so enjoyable. I’m not sure I can even explain it. What I can say is, despite the facts that this movie is almost three hours long, and that I can barely sit through a 90-minute movie most days without getting bored and wandering off, I was not bored for even a single scene.
- Tom Hanks is never not awesome.
- Hugh Grant is a close second to Hanks in the awesome department.
- Weirdly, Grant’s voice sounds much deeper when he’s speaking with an American accent.
- Even though he’s a better, more versatile actor than he’s generally given credit for, Grant truly does shine brightest when he’s playing a smarmy jackass.
- Hugo Weaving might be tied for second-place awesomeness with Hugh Grant.
- Several of Weaving’s characters in this movie are not a million miles removed from The Matrix‘s Agent Smith. I kept expecting him to bust out with, “Mister Anderson…”
- One of Weaving’s characters is a fun, creepy nod to one of his other famous roles. It might involve drag. That’s all I’m saying.
- I would love to see a full-length movie of either of the last two stories (Sonmi-451 and Zachary/Meronym).
- This movie must have been so much fun for the actors, Hugh Grant and Tom Hanks in particular. They each got to play a couple of characters that are pretty far outside their usual wheelhouse.
- As amazing as most of the makeup was, there were still times when it was distracting. I understand why they worked hard to alter the appearance of the actors for certain roles, but I kind of wish they’d relied more on acting and less on makeup.
- That heart-stopping, beautifully-choreographed scene on the bridge high above New Seoul made a lot more sense when I realized this movie was directed partly by the Wachowski siblings of Matrix fame.
- I wondered why on earth I’d never even heard of the novel until I saw it was published the year Annalie was born. Guess what book is next on my must-read list!
Subscribe to this blog's feed
I was just watching AVPS last night! Love it! And now you’ve made me want to see this movie too.
Tom Hanks is the king of my DVD collection. Hugh Grant also makes a few appearances. Hmm, maybe I should see this film.
Sarah – You should! Around the one-hour mark I found myself wondering how the movie was going to manage to keep going for another hour and 45 minutes, and then suddenly the movie was over and I was sitting there, blinking in the house lights. It was fascinating and lovely and even kind of haunting, in the best way.
I can’t wait to see this one!
I want to see a picture of your t-shirt. Movie clips take FOREVER on slowspeed internet, but I’m so curious.
Bekah, I’m wearing the shirt in this photo. The link is to a video of a fan-made Harry Potter musical, with the song “Harry Freakin’ Potter” towards the end of the scene.
I read the book in 2009, on the recommendation of a friend, and I loved it. It’s amazing, and I think you’ll get a deeper understanding from the novel (unless you’ve intentionally left out certain things above to avoid revealing info, which is possible!)…re the reason why they used the same actors?
The movie is being released here this weekend, and I can’t wait to go see it. :)
*SPOILERS!*
Jenny- I’m actually interested to see how the book compares, because the reincarnation thing wasn’t straightforward in the movie, only verrry lightly implied. The birthmark is in the movie, but a different actor had it in each time period. So I’m not sure if all those people were supposed to have been the same soul, or what.
I seriously want a whole movie of the last story, with Tom Hanks as Zachary and Halle Berry as Meronym. They were both good in the whole movie, but they had fantastic chemistry in that story.
I look forward to hearing what you think!< \strong>
I am SO GLAD you posted this! I’ve gotten chills all three times I’ve seen the trailer for Cloud Atlas & I knew I had to see it. I didn’t realize it was a novel, either, until I had a handful of customers order it in anticipation of the movie. It definitely looks like one of those films that you *must* see in the theater.
i’m so glad you wrote this review, bethany. it makes me even more excited to see the movie, which i hope to do this weekend. i just read the book recently and loved it. i’m especially excited that you mentioned wanting more from both the sonmi and meronym stories. those were by far my favorites in the book, and i was hopeful they would translate well. now who can we petition for full length versions of both? :)
Okay, so I went to see Cloud Atlas tonight based solely this review. What else can I say, as you’ve already said it! Very interesting, intriguing, thought provoking, beautiful, sad. I agree on the last two stories, they could stand alone. I also agree on the makeup, it was a bit distracting at times. But I did enjoy picking out the actors in their various roles.
I loved the book and had heard not-so-great things about the adaptation, so this is nice to read. I wonder do people who read the book first feel differently about the film? I’d be interested to hear what you think when you read it!
Now I must see this. I was intrigued when I first saw the preview. I love me some sweeping dramas and this looks like it delivers! I saw an article in Entertainment Weekly about all of Halle Berry’s characters. I love that they are all in all 6 stories somehow.
I really really really want to go see this. I have a feeling it is one of the movies that if we don’t go see it, that when it is out on dvd and we watch it we’ll go, “why didn’t we go see that in the theatre??”
And a note on the timbre of men’s voices and accents. I have noticed over the years when the British men take on an American accent their voices are lower. Probably something to do with the pronunciation. Listen to Hugh Laurie talking in his native accent and then as House, it is definitely lower. Also, Jamie Bamber, listen to him as Apollo in BSG {granted not ‘American’ but still…} and then in in native accent. Definetely lower as well.