Cloud Atlas: A blurb about the movie

Courtesy WB

        Having finished reading the book a couple of weeks ago, I can safely say that I think I liked the movie better.  I had some real problems with the book which I outlined in my previous blurb. I really had no idea what to expect, and I'd seen a trailer for the movie at the theater before I'd read the book.
        That said, the movie wasn't great. I mean, I was relieved that it wasn't bad. The Wachowskis took a lot of liberties with the stories and edited them in such a way that they made more sense than the book did. For example, they hammered on the Sonmi-451 connection in the Zachry and Meronym story. In the book the idea that Sonmi-451 became a Goddess was much more subtle and understood. To hear Meronym explain to Zachry that Sonmi-451 was a real person was somehow jarring, but necessary.
        By the same token, the editing was sometimes brutal. At one point in the Luisa Ray story she appears to be walking down an urban Californian street for no apparent reason, somehow in contact with her protector when 1970's cars start smashing into each other like in the movie Bullet. 
         Coincidentally, my favorite story in the movie is the same as my favorite story in the book, 'The Ghastly Ordeal Of Timothy Cavendish'. Jim Broadbent's portrayal of Cavendish was spot on. Cavendish wasn't the sharpest publisher in the clearing house, if you get my drift. He was an opportunist and silly, but he didn't deserve to be treated by his brother as he was. He was the ultimate underdog and we were rooting for him all the way. As an aside, Mr. Meeks(Robert Fyfe) said, 'I know, I know,' exactly the way I heard it in my head when I read the book, and this scene itself is worth the price of the rental. 
     In true Wachowski fashion (aka The Matrix) some of the best scenes were in the An Orison Of Sonmi-451 story. Deep down inside, I think this is the story they really wanted to tell but they couldn't buy the rights separate from the rest. 
     The trailer I saw at the theater made this much more of a Tom Hanks vehicle and that was a mistake. The moguls seem to have realized this and tried to fix that in the trailer below. If anything, Halle Barry played much more of a pivotal role in the stories of Half Lives: The First Luisa Ray Mystery, and  Sloosha's crossin And Evrythin After. In my opinion, Halle carried this movie. She gave us the link to An Orison Of Sonmi-451, and Letters From Zedelghem.



    

          One brilliant idea was to use the same actor in different roles in the movie.  This may seem like a spoiler, but at no point in the book is it even implied that any of these people moved on in some karmic fashion to another life. The only true thing in the movie is that the comet birthmark moves from person to person, and this is what requires the leap of faith.
    
     If you haven't read the book, I still recommend the movie. The editing at the end is very brisk, however if you pay attention you'll still get it.


Resource Links:
Lost Archives Cafe: Cloud Atlas, A blurb about the book

IMDB:Cloud Atlas