“All boundaries are conventions, waiting to be transcended”, declares the young, bisexual British composer Robert Frobisher (Ben Whishaw) near the end of Cloud Atlas. That’s the mission statement for this zany epic – based on a 2004 novel by David Mitchell – which alternates between six separate stories, set in different historical periods, about the battle for love and freedom.
Besides Frobisher, the other protagonists include a crusading reporter (Halle Berry), a bumbling publisher (Jim Broadbent), an oppressed clone (Bae Doona) and a tribesman (Tom Hanks) from a post-apocalyptic future. Many actors appear in multiple roles, with heavy make-up sometimes used to alter their race or gender.
That is as much as can be nailed down about the movie – to attempt a short and succinct summary of plot would be both pointless and frustrating.
What I can say, is that the film sets out to transcend various boundaries, including the boundary between blockbuster entertainment and art cinema; it also rejects the notion that a visionary project should be guided by a single individual. Three of its segments were directed by Andy and Lana Wachowski, the siblings who brought us the Matrix trilogy; the other three are the work of the German director Tom Tykwer, best-known for Run Lola Run.
But perhaps the real mastermind of the piece is editor Alexander Berner, who has the unenviable task of linking all the stories together through sound bridges and match cuts.
Does this lumbering machine soar to the skies? In a word, no. The performances are often absurdly broad, and it’s unclear how literally we’re meant to take the notion that different characters are reincarnations of one another.
But at its best Cloud Atlas has an undeniable charge: it is a film that so boldly risks incoherence that it requires the viewer, too, to take a leap.
It won’t be for everyone, but truly great movies so rarely are.