Well, to say that I was looking forward to Cloud Atlas is an understatement. Although, how can I say… I was looking forward to it VERY MUCH, but not as many might have thought now. I didn’t hunt for bits of information about this project, I didn’t stay awake at night when the trailers came out, I didn’t watch all the released excerpts (I didn’t watch any of them at all). I was just waiting. And sometimes I watched the five-minute trailer, because from there the pleasant atmosphere of a good movie emanates.
My interest in the project awoke when I learned that it would be filmed brothers the Wachowski family in tandem with Tom Tykwer. Well, that is, my first comrades interested me, I still don’t know a thing about Tykver. Then there were cool photos from the filming, then a magically beautiful trailer appeared, then there were a couple of intriguing interviews, and now the film has come out.
Well, what is this “Cloud Atlas”?? kingdom-casino.uk Let’s start with the fact that this seems to be a film adaptation of some sensational book of the same name. I haven’t read it, that’s why the tone is so slightly dismissive, because in recent years all these pseudo-philosophical literary bestsellers all look the same. Oh well.
Exists in the book 6 various storylines that are mysteriously intertwined in one single narrative. In themselves, these mini-plots are not that they are somehow ingenious or contain outstanding sacred meanings or anything like that. Extend any of them for an hour and a half by pouring in unnecessary water – you get… you get a political thriller, a post-apocalyptic something there, a nautical something there, a sci-fi action movie, a drama and a comedy. And nothing outstanding will be found anywhere.
However (I don’t know how this is done in the book) when they are all brought under one roof in the film, then everything becomes much more interesting. And since I’ve already begun to rant about plots, I’ll say about the script: each story itself is simple, but when 6 of them are told at the same time, you have to concentrate, because otherwise you’ll stupidly start to lose the thread of what’s happening. The funny thing is that jumps between stories occur at the most unexpected moments, as a result the script is fed to us not in even pieces, but in vinaigrette cuts. At one time I really liked Chuck Palahniuk’s style of breaking up his storyline and telling it not in the order of the calendar origin of events, but in a completely random sequence. Or in “Watchmen”, it’s a comic book not a movie. There, too, by and large, there are also two storylines, which constantly flow into each other.
The second dog buried in the “Good” section of the local script is the interconnectedness of stories. The hero of one of them may be inspired by what the hero of the previous one wrote, or even worship him/her. This connection emerges in different ways, but is certainly present.
And when you start to think about it, you realize that this is really cool and right. In the sense that in one film we are shown a chain of events with a total length of hundreds of years and they are all interconnected. And in this regard, I cannot resist quoting the film itself (not verbatim, but the gist is this):
A: … Whatever you do is just a drop in the ocean!
B: But what is the ocean if not a great many drops?
So this is a lot of inspired philosophical crap for 100 lemons bucks? No. The cinema is never “festival” when out of two hours of total duration, one and a half is occupied by the inspired filming of the flight of a sheet of toilet paper through a landfill. "Cloud Atlas" is not like that at all and doesn’t try to be like that. But he is not the typical Hollywood bravado of special effects and pompous speeches. There are very few explosions, chases and action here, although what there is is done at an excellent level.
The joke of "Atlas" is that it is about obvious things. The main motto of all its script components is one simple imperative verb: “Act”. If we expand a little, then: “Life is one. So take action and don’t be afraid to get lost in the ocean of drops, because a drop is better than nothing. It’s better than leaving and leaving no trace.".
Well, there’s sure to be something for everyone there too. Many people argue that the film is about reincarnation, but I will refrain from this for now, because there is no direct rebirth of the characters here, and to dig deeper – for this you need to watch it at least one more time.
What are you saying about the plot?? You’re talking about special effects, let’s talk about the actors, about the music in the end! Okay-okay. It’s just that if I have a lot of things to say about the plot, then I don’t have much to say about the actors, special effects and music. Perhaps in more detail about the joke with the fact that in different “plots” mainly the same actors are involved, as a result of which the villain in one mini-scenario may turn out to be a good-natured person in another, and in the third he will be an insignificant small fry with one or a couple of lines. The ones that light up the most on the screen Tom Hanks And Holly Barry. They, along with Hugo Wearving, are present, in my opinion, in all six stories. In any case, all the actors are great.
It’s worth noting here, by the way, here’s another point. Plots are plots, but the stories also have different themes and atmosphere. The adventures of a dying lawyer sailing home are one mood. The story of the pianist (Robert Frobisher, if I’m not confusing anything) is a different mood, different colors, different tones. And so – with each story, everyone is different.
Therefore, the actors had to not only transform themselves, but also somehow change the game itself. It worked? I repeat – it worked.
I will especially highlight three:
Ben Whishaw
Got me hooked. I don’t know what exactly, but I was hooked. Here is the role of Robert Frobisher specifically.