CLOUD ATLAS Review

"Cloud Atlas" is inherently polarizing in its very nature. Either you get swept up in its soaring, outlandish vision, or you don't. It's a film easy to dismiss but equally as easy to get caught up in its undeniable power and ambition. From Andy and Lana Wachowski (who arguably haven't made a decent movie since "The Matrix" and maybe "The Matrix Reloaded") and Tom Tykwer, behind the one-hit wonder "Run Lola Run," these three set out to make the epic, visionary mind-bender of the year. And to their credit, they've done exactly that.

The movie is based on the seemingly impossible to adapt 2004 novel from David Mitchell, which tells six different stories spanning between the mid-19th century and well beyond the year 2144. The movie adaptation casts the same group of actors playing different characters within each story. The main players are Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, Ben Whishaw and Jim Broadbent who all, in some cases, are not even recognizable in the role they play. Supporting them are Hugh Grant and Susan Surandon. Sometimes the actors are the centerpiece of their story, other times they're a background figure. Each story opens with a larger exposition to give some context, each serving as their own single vignette. Once introduced, however, they weave together cutting back and forth between each other with a very specific rhythm.

The success in the storytelling comes from the way the six stories, and the main roles within, work together as they spill over and ripple through the narratives. I can't imagine the road map the Wachowskis and Tykwer must've created to pull this off. Now, I could go into detail about the premise of each timeline, but it would be an effort in vain. The point is the complex tapestry of feelings that is ultimately created, how particular themes so clearly resonates freely into the next frame. The filmmakers definitely touch on something political -- big oil destroying a nation -- but I won't get into that here. Themes of freedom, justice, liberation, truth, love, loss, good and evil all perfectly sync up in the thematic telling of each story, and it has a wondrous effect. We're never set on a character for long, but in the way certain roles represent others in a different timeline, similar emotions carry over. An escape, a romantic interest, a painful death -- there's always a link. Repeated passages, phrases and one similarly-shaped birth mark command repeated viewings to follow what I can only assume are endless correlations between the six stories.

If this all seems very general, that's because it is. "Cloud Atlas" works at its best when looking at the bigger picture. It's in the details where the movie starts to fall apart. The portrayals are caricature, cartoonish even, but there's no lack in color and texture. For example, the 2144 storyline takes place in Seoul, Korea and forces actors to wear makeup making them appear more Asian. (Except for stoic and stunning Korean actress Doona Bae.) It's a weird effect, especially Jim Sturgess' use of an accent. The other future storyline has Tom Hanks and Halle Berry speaking in a strange, broken language that's nearly laughable -- not to mention almost impossible to understand. But again, those are the nit-picky details. When watching "Cloud Atlas," an overall feeling emerges, a grandiose idea of the recurring moralities of human nature, no matter when or where, or what lifetime -- history repeats itself. I urge you to see it. It's certainly not for everyone, but it also very well might be just for you.

Archive: "Across the Universe" (2007)

Julie Taymor certainly took a risk with "Across the Universe." It's a musical that takes place in the 1960s Vietnam era and features music exclusively by The Beatles. Julie Taymor is best known for directing the Broadway hit "The Lion King," so there's no denying that she has a thing for choreography and set pieces, and her visual gifts are very apparent in her new movie. It's hugely ambitious, and just like most other hugely ambitious movies, it doesn't fully succeed. But as it fails, it does so spectacularly because there were some moments in the movie I loved to go along with the moments that I thoroughly disliked. So, I sit here with mixed results and am left calling the movie a fascinating failure.

The narrative involves a dockworker from Liverpool conveniently named Jude (Jim Sturgess) who comes to America to find his father who left him. While there, he befriends a Princeton drop-out named Max, and then meets Max's sister, conveniently named Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), who he falls in love with. The three of them move into a place in New York City together with a hippie singer named Sadie and a Jimmy Hendrix-esque guitarist named Jo-Jo. There's also an Asian girl named Prudence, whose name is conveniently used in another Beatles song. Cute, right? Yeah, we get it. A lot of the movie is set up so that a Beatles song can go with the progression of things, but the problem is that, more often than not, it feels blatantly forced. In a musical, the songs are meant to advance the story; here, many of the songs are squeezed in, feel out-of-place, and are only there to increase the content of the Beatles music.

While in New York, Max gets drafted to the Vietnam War, and Lucy gets involved in an anti-war group fighting for peace. The movie is political while pretending not to be, and it addresses other issues of that time including the Detroit riot and the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. If anything, these sidetracks make the movie feel even more unfocused and disjointed than it already is. The movie is also unclear on how it even wants to present the 60s because just as its solemn, the tone completely flips with an exaggerated comic book representation of the era. The tone is uneven as it sporadically shifts back and forth between frivolous and nostalgic. The best option would've been to forget the cultural commentary and stick with the stronger center following the love between Jude and Lucy; this is where the movie shines.

But before that, a movie taking place in the 60s isn't complete without a hallucinogenic drug trip. This referential magical mystery bus tour involves a cameo by Bono as he sings a version of "Call me the Walrus," which is just fine until the group comes across Mr. Kite, with another cameo, this time by the non-singing Eddie Izzard. What follows is an animated sequence of a bizarre circus show, a scene which should've been entirely cut and destroyed. And that's not the only supposedly inventive Beatles rendition that made me cringe in my seat. Five Selma Hayeks dressed up as sexy nurses break out into "Happiness is a Warm Gun," a scene which serves zero purpose. There's also a group of draftees carrying the Statue of Liberty in their underwear, singing "I Want You (She's So Heavy)," and there's a Vietnam-themed rendition of "Strawberry Fields Forever" that works until flaming strawberries start dropping like literal bombs. You can't blame Taymor for trying, but these are definitely head-scratchers.

Brushing aside the downright absurd sequences, somewhere along the line about halfway through, the movie begins capturing your heart through the things it does do right. A touching take on "I Want to Hold Your Hand," which will change the way you look at that song forever, a magnificent underwater scene, and of course, the rousing "Hey Jude," along with the big closer, "All You Need is Love" all carry moments of true inspiration. It's just too bad that the narrative and the characters aren't pushed to the emotional level that these musical numbers try so hard to convey. It's as if Taymor is using lavish set pieces and visual quirks to make up for a harmful absence of content in other areas. The movie is beautiful, yes, but it is beautifully hollow.

"Across the Universe" is a fantastic flop, a movie that is daring, different, and highly original, but doesn't exactly live up to its own expectations. And since when is PG-13 allowed to show nipple? Now, provided it's only Evan Rachel Wood's left breast, that's still more than what you'll find in most PG-13 features. I guess the MPAA is fine with a singular boob but then gets offended when a pair comes out.

Archive: '21'

Movie Review
21 (2008)


Even after watching an entire movie about counting cards in blackjack, I'm still confused on how the whole system works. What I am sure of, however, is that the movie "21," which is about this whole counting business, certainly works. It’s a kick to watch, and odds are audiences will be pleased. It's loosely based on Ben Mezrich's novel "Bringing Down the House," and it tells the true life story of how an MIT student joined a group of other gambling colleagues from school to win some bundles of cash from casinos in Las Vegas. School on the weekdays, gambling on the weekends.

The elaborate system used by these students involves assigning different numbers to tables depending on how many high or low cards have been dealt. There are certain team members called spotters who sit at the tables and signal the designated big players to come over when the table gets hot. The movie takes this system and simplifies it down into an appealing and exciting movie experience. And at the center of it all is Ben Campbell (Jim Sturgess), the very intelligent and innocent student who gets hand-picked by his math professor, Mickey Rosa (Kevin Spacey), to join the elite team of card counters. Ben is timid, shy, passive, hangs out with a couple other geeks who are building a robot in a science competition, and they all have collectively given up on girls being interested in them. But when Ben sits down at the blackjack table, he transforms, and that's when his brainy reserve does wonders for him in negotiating risk and just doing the simple math to win big.

And the timing for Ben couldn't be any better as he needs $300,000 to get into Harvard Medical, and going to Vegas is his means to an end, or so he says. Things start off easy enough for the team with their fake names and disguises, but soon enough, the money starts to get the best of them. Now, this fact is already apparent through any trailers for this movie, so there's no point in bashing the predictable standard-issue plot mechanics that follow here. There is still a lot of other neat and clever stuff going on throughout, especially within the character of Ben himself. Sturgess, who is most known for his role in "Across the Universe," is as likable as ever, this time ditching his accent and delivering a strong and believable performance. His face is readable and we get all of his emotions through the tension, fear, anxiety, desire, and excitement of the entire Vegas deal.

While becoming distracted by his winnings, he also becomes distracted with a fellow counter, Jill (Kate Bosworth), the sexy girl from school who he could never before imagine himself with. And yet here she is now interested in him and played with a sly ice princess attraction by the slinky Bosworth whose role is just the right amount. She's there but but never too overbearing, and she keeps things sizzling. Kevin Spacey is good, too, returning as his familiar sarcastic and biting self. He oozes a certain charismatic and amused attitude and yet is a shark at the same time with an anger that erupts during a turning point in a confrontation with Ben.

Counting cards is completely legal, and yet the casinos keep a close eye out for it, never allowing anybody to win them out of business. The looming Cole Williams (Laurence Fishburne) is an intimidating casino head who gets the idea that there’s card counting going on, and he’s certainly a person the team members don't want to come in contact with. Here's a guy who, if he catches anybody card counting, will not only kick the person out but break their face while he's at it. The sticky part is that counting cards isn't necessarily just a way of cheating but also a true skill. And so, Ben and his teammates play strictly by the rules and yet are lying while doing so.

Despite the movie's obvious issues in terms of stretching believability, it never skimps on its sole responsibility to entertain. Sure, the climax shatters any lasting credibility the movie might've had, but it's also surefire entertainment. With "21," director Robert Luketic has exaggerated the story from which the movie is inspired just enough to keep us enthralled and even though we may know how most of it all turns out, there are enough twists and turns to keep it intriguing enough to make the ride worth watching. Most of all, too, this thriller has such a sharp and stylish look to it and has been brought together in such a slickly made package that it simply makes for a nice little piece of escapism.