There is nobility in striving for a cause that seems foolhardy, toward a goal that, if reached, could bring greater joy and understanding to the world. That’s one of the many ideas bubbling through the sprawling Cloud Atlas, yet it’s also pretty clearly a way of thinking about the project itself.
David Mitchell’s 2004 novel seems like it should be unfilmable, with its six semi-stand-alone stories that span centuries from the 1840s to a 23rd-century post-apocalypse.
You’d have to be slightly nuts to think three different directors—The Matrix trilogy’s Andy and Lana Wachowski, and Run Lola Run’s Tom Tykwer—could wrangle that material into something that works as a cohesive three-hour cinematic experience instead of a frantic, over-ambitious cacophany.
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Sprawl Together Now: Cloud Atlas chops compelling individual stories into a grandiose cacophony
Tom Hanks and Halle Berry star in the recent film Cloud Atlas.
