Cloud Atlas the novel resided on my To-read list for months until I had an opportunity to simply record the movie and save it to watch with friends. Before viewing, I had already read the book's summary and I'd also heard of and seen the awful Yellow-face makeup. My friend had previously recommended the movie to me, so late on a Friday night, we watched Cloud Atlas until 2:30AM (with snack breaks and pauses for laughter of course).
Overall, Cloud Atlas is gorgeous. The cinematography was striking, the colors stunning, and the music astounding. The stories themselves aren't completely phenomenal on their own, but once connected together through time, they're complex and engage the mind.
A contrast to the beauty of the film is the overall bluntness that is presented both in contexts of comedy and horror. It was funny as hell when the pretentious critic was pushed off a roof with a pancake ending, but it was also disturbing to see a fabricant waitress killed with blood spurting everywhere. There's no censoring, and instead every gruesome detail of the characters' actions is depicted.
Themes constant throughout the movie included the oppression of one group of people by another, conflicted love, truth, and simply human connection. The horrors of systematic inequality were disheartening, terrible, and sometimes physically sickening. They ranged from control, to physical violence, to even cannibalism in more than one story line.
Despite the multiple strengths of the film, the makeup was incredibly distracting. The Asian characters who were clearly white men in half-assed makeup were cartoonish. They all bore some resemblance to Spock, and the interrogator looked completely like an alien. As an Asian American, you can bet I felt a little insulted by the portrayal of Korean men. Did the makeup artists think that weird triangle brows, straight (obviously synthetic) black hair, and a flat heavy hood lid was convincingly Asian? The other race-crossing makeup attempts weren't convincing either. I understand that they used the same actors in order to draw the connections through history, and I really do think that it's a fascinating and ambitious idea, but as much as I wish to fully appreciate it, the makeup was just not good.
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Regardless, I still do want to recommend Cloud Atlas, as it's an-almost-three-hour thought-provoking wild ride.
I was immediately drawn to this post in particular when I saw the Cloud Atlas movie picture. I think you really captured the strengths and weaknesses of the film. It is, as you say, a ride that will take the viewer through time. I watched the movie about three years ago, and read the book last summer. I would recommend that you read the book too, though it might be good to take a break and come back to it. The book's most interesting appeal to me was its different writing styles and formats for the different sections. For example, there were letters, journals, interviews, etc. Each section was so unique, yet still connected. I'm glad I got to read someone else's opinion on the movie. It's definitely one worth talking about!
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