CLOUD ATLAS C-
USA (172 mi) 2012
‘Scope d: Tom Tykwer, Andy and Lana Wachowski Official site
This is Hollywood moviemaking at its excessive worst, which
unfortunately the movie moguls think is the absolute pinnacle of box office
entertainment, throwing $100 million dollars into big stars and an entire
galaxy of computer graphic designers, where it takes over a minute during the
end credits just to list them all, using a popular novel by David Mitchell as the
source material, where in their eyes, this is a financial gold mine, a big
budget item turned into a colossal action adventure movie modeled on so many
other previous successes, like LORD OF THE RINGS (2001–03), AMISTAD (1997), ONE
FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S NEST (1975), AMADEUS (1984), or Blade
Runner (1982), among others. In the
eyes of high-priced Hollywood executives, this is considered a popcorn movie
sure to spark interest in the adulated viewers.
But the problem is the lack of coherent direction, actually using 3
different directors, brother and sister Andy and Lana Wachowski along with
German director Tom Tykwer, as the story is told so piecemeal and haphazardly, continually
stringing along a series of separate stories, moving back and forth in time,
using actors in multiple roles throughout the constantly changing narratives,
all supposedly coming together at the end in some kind of thematic whole, but
it just doesn’t work. And the problem
exists at the outset, as each individual storyline is constantly interrupted,
like a serial installment, moving backwards or forwards in time for yet another
developing storyline, which is also abruptly interrupted, where so much of the
time is filled with listening to an inner narrative reveal the different plotlines,
hardly a scintillating concept, where the audience loses any real connection to
any of the storylines or characters before they ever have a chance to gain
interest. By the finale, when
similarities are supposed to impressively come together, it’s too late, as the
audience no longer cares. Few, if any of
the characters throughout actually sustain any interest, where Tom Hanks is
supposed to be the overall lead character but he’s completely miscast, as he’s
never seen in character but instead as the ever likable Tom Hanks, and in the
end turns into Uncle Remus. Perhaps the
one star of the show is Halle Berry, who actually delivers one of her better
performances in her entire career, but so much of it is lost, as are all the
performances, in the mumbo jumbo of the mangled storylines.
Unfortunately, not all the storylines hold sufficient
interest, such as the mid 19th century voyage across the Pacific, where the
entire segment continually plays to stereotype and could easily have been
jettisoned in this near 3-hour monstrosity.
Similarly, equally uninspiring is another AMADEUS storyline that features
a world renowned composer too ill to continue working until a young upstart
with a mysterious past walks into his life and rekindles his musical
inspiration. Do we really care, as
there’s nothing remotely original about either segment? That leaves four other interweaving stories,
where even one of those is questionable, but becomes significant due to Berry’s
strong performance as an investigative reporter risking her life to get a
secret report exposing a behind-the-scenes power play of corporate greed and
theft, where big oil is intending to create an apocalyptic disaster to rid the
earth of the remaining oil reserves in order to join forces with current owners
to buy up monopoly shares in the nuclear power business. Typically, the way this plays out, Berry is a
lone do gooder who is targeted, much like Karen Silkwood in SILKWOOD (1983), a
paranoid thriller with real life implications. Honestly, the film could do without these 3
segments, which leaves 3 remaining segments and 3 directors, where one each
might have been a more inspired idea.
However, since they so closely resemble, both in tone and atmospheric style, previous Hollywood blockbusters, this appears to be no accident. One resembles ONE FLEW OVER THE CUCKOO’S
NEST, as an irate elderly brother plots revenge against his brother that
desperately comes to him in a time of financial trouble and instead finds
himself locked into a mental asylum run by a sadistic nurse (Hugo Weaving in
drag) with no way out, where a comic escape sequence by an elderly foursome is
inspired by CHICKEN RUN (2000) or THE GREAT ESCAPE (1963). While this segment does have hilarious
moments, starring the befuddled Jim Broadbent, it doesn’t hold a candle to the
remaining two segments in terms of dramatic reach.
The final two sequences are sci-fi futuristic, though one
feels almost prehistoric and could just as easily be the mythical set of Xena: Warrior Princess (1995 – 2001). Both are the
most spectacularly designed, one a futuristic world of robots and slaves, set
in Neo Seoul, Korea in 2144, where Doona Bae lives her life as a corporate slave,
treated and behaving exactly like a robot, where every other model looks and
behaves exactly as she does, all programmed to serve customers in a futuristic
fast food franchise. In order to
guarantee compliance, each wears a metal collar around their necks that with
the push of a button will instantly kill them.
By accident, she observes one of the models risk their life for a chance
at freedom, but fails, instilling the idea in her head. Next, out of nowhere, she’s whisked away into
a futuristic urban landscape by a freedom fighter of epic proportions, turning
this into a mix of STAR WARS (1977) and Blade
Runner. The sequence connecting the
future to the past is actually set in a post apocalyptical 24th century, a segment where the Hawaiian tribal language can feel restricting, where people are farmers and goat herders simply living off the land
with primitive instruments while marauding raiders with horses and swords often
plunder their villages and kill their people, where Tom Hanks witnesses some of
the killings first hand while he was hiding and cowering in fear, engulfed in
guilt afterwards, where he is visited by Halle Berry as a visitor from the
future looking to unlock a key to her past.
Together, after initial mistrust, they forge a new understanding, one
with Star Trek (1966 – 69) universal ramifications. With often dreadful make up and costume changes, the idea
that these characters are somehow connected over time, as advertised, just
never comes together in any coherent fashion, as it might require character
development, something altogether missing here with the possible exception of the
continually misused Hanks and the resplendent Berry. Spanning some 500 years, the film blends
drama, mystery, sci-fi, action sequences, and enduring love stories as a means
to suggest humanity is driven by an overriding need for freedom, inspiration,
and love, suggesting these powers exist both before we are born and continue
well after we are gone, where characters struggle and fight throughout the
generations to rediscover these elements of their humanity, and that the world
is somehow shaped by whatever acts and decisions we make. All that’s missing is a rousing rendition of Michael
Jackson breaking out into “We Are the World” Michael Jackson - We Are the
World (6:20).
