The World Beyond BetterMost > The Culture Tent
CLOUD ATLAS: Lana Wachowsky & Tom Tykwer & Andy Wachowsky: OCT 26
Aloysius J. Gleek:
http://social.entertainment.msn.com/movies/blogs/the-hitlist-blogpost.aspx?post=f6291502-498b-4389-ae7c-e3dd345692a4
Rating: 4/5
TIFF Review:
Cloud Atlas
Uneven, unprecedented
and ultimately moving
By James Rocchi
Sep 9, 2012 3:46PM
Adapting David Mitchell's symphonic novel "Cloud Atlas," co-directors Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski and Tom Tykwer have taken on an exacting and exhausting challenge; Mitchell's book leaps between eras and sets of characters and, at the same time, connects them all -- thematically, spiritually -- with resonances and connections among and between.
It's got an all-star cast and a tremendous amount of action to be sure, and is in that fashion completely part of Hollywood as we know it -- and, at the same time, it is so full of passion and heart and empathy that it feels completely unlike any other modern film in its range either measured through scope of budget or sweep of action. It is an epic film, costing hundreds of millions of dollars, and at the same time it's about moral choice and moral action in the face of amoral power and amoral cruelty, a laser-blasting and knife-fighting saga about how, with struggle and sacrifice, the workings of the world can turn, slowly, towards something like justice and something like peace, and just because we may not live to see them does not mean we should give up.
The film leaps between times -- an ocean-going expedition to conduct the legal transactions of slavery during the Victorian era, a volatile relationship between a composer and his apprentice in the '30s, a reporter's investigation of a nuclear plant in '73, a comedy of errors for a publisher exiled against his will to a nursing home, a near-future struggle between the haves and have-nots of a radically different Korea and the search for long-lost knowledge in what's left of Hawaii long after 'The Fall.'
The tones of these segments vary wildly and vary well; for those who object that this kind of genre-jumping seems confusing or overly ambitious, let it be pointed out that most people's lives do not, in fact, fit comfortably into one genre. Or, for another counter-argument, no one who sees "Cloud Atlas" will sigh "God, not another sci-fi/farce/romance/thriller/survival/age of sail saga. …" Many will suggest that "Cloud Atlas"'s philosophical points -- that love is better than hate, life better than death, freedom better than slavery, art better than censorship -- will strike too many as empty platitudes we all accept as true. But if that's the case, why is our world in the state it's in?
Apparently the breakthrough that the Wachowskis and Tykwer had in their preparation was to have the film's cast take multiple roles throughout the film; a ship's doctor at sea is a blackmailing hotel clerk is a nuclear scientist is a thug-turned-author is a father in the cooling ashes of the apocalypse. It's a meditation on the connectedness of all things, and small ripples becoming waves, and at the same time there's plenty of peril and action and fast-cuts and comedy. And when you watch, say, Tom Hanks throw himself into all the iterations named above, for but one example, it's a demonstration of both talent and daring on the part of every performer. Some of the make-up, it should be noted, does not work -- an artificially aged Hugh Grant looks like he's wearing a mask of unbaked Pillsbury Crescent Rolls -- and some of it does, and some of it works precisely because it does not, like an actress putting in contacts and makeup and dying her hair to play a woman of standing and privilege in an age when no woman of her race would have had that standing and privilege, and we are less thrown out of the film's world than we are inspired to think of our own.
Another of MSN's film critics will review "Cloud Atlas" at greater length (and, if I might be pardoned for suggesting so, after greater length of contemplation) when it's released later in the year. But after being buffeted and battered by the era-hopping nature of the film last night, I still found the pieces and shards harmonizing with each other even beyond how the film fades, say, horse hooves into train wheels to connect them. And even a day of time -- to step back, and look at every bright-glittering shard in the film's mosaic to see and contemplate the larger picture it seems to make (even with some off colors and too-sharp edges) -- rewarded me for doing so. And the finale -- sad, true, having travelled far but with still so far to go -- is unexpectedly, startlingly moving and emotional. For fans of all three filmmakers, who've been waiting for "Cloud Atlas," the question has been if the wait is worth it. And just on the grounds of ambition and ethos, it most definitely is. Most hundred-plus million-dollar films want to inspire you to buy the toy, get the game, read the comic and change your purchasing habits; "Cloud Atlas" wants to send you out of the theater inspired to do real work for real change. If that's a 'messy failure,' then let us hope Hollywood's other directing titans are foolish enough to put bold big ideas in their films to finally go with the big budgets and big effects to give us even more of such fascinating, breathtaking and captivating errors.
Aloysius J. Gleek:
Updated Cast list (in Progress)
Tom Hanks is in The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing:
Dr. Henry Goose
in Letters from Zedelghem:
a blackmailing hotel clerk
in Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery:
Isaac Sachs
in The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish:
Dermot 'Duster' Hoggins
in An Orison of Sonmi~451:
"Timothy Cavendish"
(a character in a historical movie,
seen in an orison by Sonmi~451)
in Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After:
Valleysman Zachry ("105 Winters After 'The Fall' ") and
Old Zachry (30 Years Later)
a Narrator
and ?
Adam Siviter is Hoggins Impersonator
and ?
Halle Berry is in The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing:
a Moriori
(an enslaved Island Native)
in Letters from Zedelghem:
Jocasta Ayrs
in Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery:
(and who has a comet-shaped birthmark
between sholderblade and collarbone):
Luisa Rey
in An Orison of Sonmi~451:
Dr. Ovid, an elderly (male)
Korean Doctor
in Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After:
(and who has a comet-shaped birthmark
between sholderblade and collarbone):
Meronym,
a Prescient
and ?
Hugo Weaving is in The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing:
Haskell Moore
in Letters from Zedelghem:
Tadeusz Kesselring
in Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery:
Bill Smoke
in The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish:
Nurse Noakes
in An Orison of Sonmi~451:
'Control'? Mephi?
in Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After:
Old Georgie
and ?
Jim Sturgess is in The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing:
Adam Ewing
in The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish:
a (blond) thug
in An Orison of Sonmi~451:
Hae-Joo Im (Chang?)
in Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After:
Adam Bailey
(Zachry's brother-in-law)
and ?
Doona Bae is in The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing:
Tilde Ewing
(the wife of Adam Ewing)
in Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery:
a Mexican woman
in An Orison of Sonmi~451:
(and who has a comet-shaped birthmark
between sholderblade and collarbone):
Sonmi-451,
a clone 'fabricant'
in Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After:
The goddess Sonmi
and ?
Jim Broadbent is in The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing:
a Sea Captain
in Letters from Zedelghem:
Vyvyan Ayrs
in The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish:
Timothy Cavendish
in An Orison of Sonmi~451:
a blind violinist
in Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After:
a Prescient
a Narrator
and ?
Robin Morrissey is Young Cavendish
and ?
Ben Whishaw is in Letters from Zedelghem:
(and who has a comet-shaped birthmark
between sholderblade and collarbone):
Robert Frobisher
in Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery:
a hippie clerk in a record store
in San Francisco
in The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish:
Georgette, a blonde woman--
(Hugh Grant's wife)
and ?
James D'Arcy is in Letters from Zedelghem:
Rufus Sixsmith (young)
in Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery:
Rufus Sixsmith (old)
in The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish:
Nurse James and
"Rufus Sixsmith"
(a character in a novel)
in An Orison of Sonmi~451:
The Archivist
and ?
Xun Zhou is in An Orison of Sonmi~451:
Yoona-939,
a clone 'fabricant'
in Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After:
Rose Bailey (Zachry's sister)
and ?
Keith David is in The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing:
Kupaka
(the Maori Chieftain)
in Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery:
Joe Napier
in An Orison of Sonmi~451:
General Ankor Apis
(a rebel leader)
and ?
David Gyasi is in The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing:
Autua
(the escaped Moriori Native)
in Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery:
Lester Rey
in Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After:
The Prescient President
and ?
Hugh Grant is in The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing:
Reverend Horrox
in Letters from Zedelghem:
a hotel concierge
in Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery:
Alberto Grimaldi
in The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish:
Timothy Cavendish's
brother
in An Orison of Sonmi~451:
Seer Rhee
in Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After:
a Cannibal (Kona Chief)
and ?
Susan Sarandon is in The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing:
Madame Horrox
in The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish:
Ursula
in An Orison of Sonmi~451:
a male mathmatician or scientist
(a historical figure seen in an orison by Sonmi~451)
in Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After:
the Abbess
a Narrator
and ?
Aloysius J. Gleek:
James D'Arcy as Rufus Sixsmith and Ben Whishaw as Robert Frobisher in Letters from Zedelghem
Hugo Weaving as Bill Smoke, Halle Berry as Luisa Rey and Keith David as Joe Napier in Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery
Jim Broadbent as Timothy Cavendish and Hugo Weaving as Nurse Noakes in The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish
Hugh Grant as Seer Rhee, Doona Bae as Sonmi-451 and Jim Sturgess as Hae-Joo Im (Chang) in An Orison of Sonmi~451
Jim Sturgess as Hae-Joo Im (Chang) and Doona Bae as Sonmi-451 in An Orison of Sonmi~451
Doona Bae as Sonmi-451 in An Orison of Sonmi~451
Tom Hanks as Zachry and Halle Berry as Meronym in Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After
Aloysius J. Gleek:
http://www.hitfix.com/motion-captured/a-new-featurette-shows-why-cloud-atlas-is-an-actors-dream-for-tom-hanks-and-the-cast
A new featurette shows why
Cloud Atlas
is an actor's dream for
Tom Hanks and the cast
The stars of the film discuss
the challenge and opportunity
it represented
By Drew McWeeny
Friday, Oct 19, 2012 9:15 PM
Click for video:
One week until "Cloud Atlas" lands in theaters, and I still have no idea what the general public is going to make of it.
They seem to be getting the word out, and it's certainly a hard film to describe to someone who doesn't know the book and who doesn't automatically get excited when they hear who made the film. It helps that they have Tom Hanks attached, although I do wonder if he means the same thing to young audiences that he does to the over-30 crowd these days.
One thing that will help make people curious is by talking about the way the recognizable cast vanish into the various characters they play over the course of the film, and that's something the ads seem to be emphasizing. I thought it was pretty great that Hanks slipped into character on "Good Morning America" and almost immediately dropped an f-bomb. I'll have some video interviews with the cast going up next week, including one with Hanks, and one of the things I discussed with him is how people expecting a "regular" Tom Hanks film are going to be flabbergasted when they see some of what he does in the film.
I have loved Jim Broadbent from the very first time I saw him in "Brazil," and one of the purest pleasures of "Cloud Atlas" is just seeing someone give Broadbent a wide range of things to play. He is more than up to the challenge, and I think he does some of the best work of his career here. I love those moments when filmmakers look past the way someone is normally cast and they use them in some unexpected fashion, like when Christopher Lloyd finally got to play a romantic lead in "Back To The Future III." Here, I feel like Broadbent gets to play such a range of types that it serves as a powerful illustration of just how great a character actor he can be.
We've got a new featurette for you today that will explore just how these actors approached the challenges inherent to the material, and next week, we'll have more video interviews for you. In the meantime, if you haven't already read my interview with Lana and Andy Wachowski and Tom Tykwer, please do. They make the best possible case for their own film.
serious crayons:
It's safe to call him "our Jimmy Stewart," though.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/browbeat/2012/10/24/tom_hanks_everyman_no_and_stop_using_that_term.html?tid=sm_tw_button_chunky
Tom Hanks Is Not an “Everyman”
By David Haglund
Posted Wednesday, Oct. 24, 2012, at 1:11 PM ET
In Cloud Atlas, the literary adaptation directed by Tom Tykwer and the Wachsowski siblings which opens this Friday, Tom Hanks plays five major roles: a 19th-century English doctor, a 1930s English hotelier, an American nuclear scientist in the 1970s, a thuggish British writer in 2012, and a tribesman of indeterminate background sometime in the very distant future. (He also has a cameo of sorts as a probably British actor in the 22nd century.) It’s a daring, ambitious feat. And it fails spectacularly.
Why? For all his considerable skill, Tom Hanks simply isn’t the kind of shape-shifter who could pull off something like that. So why cast him then? The reason is obvious: He is the “ultimate Everyman of our age,” to quote the film’s directors. “Our Jimmy Stewart,” as Lana Wachowski says, echoing hundreds of people before her. Therein lies the problem: Tom Hanks is not an “Everyman,” and neither was Jimmy Stewart. What they both are is affable, handsome-but-not-too-handsome heterosexual American white guys with middle class backgrounds and largely British ancestors who generally portray good guys in the movies. (Stewart’s parents were of Scottish descent; Hanks’s mother had Portuguese ancestors, but his father’s side was mostly British.)
That is a very specific thing! And it is no coincidence, of course, that these are the sorts of men that the word “Everyman” typically follows around. The term dates to a time and place where anyone who was not a straight, white (and arguably even British) man was explicitly regarded by law and social norms as inferior to those who were. Its earliest known use is in the 15th-century English morality play The Somonyng of Everyman, which depicts the path of an allegorical figure toward salvation through Christ.
It’s true that the term broadened somewhat during the last several decades: Denzel Washington, for instance, is occasionally referred to (and cast) as an “Everyman,” even though he’s black and exceptionally handsome. More typical, though, is the Newsweek piece from last year in which Steve Carrell is described as the “new” Everyman, someone “in that Tom Hanks, Jimmy Stewart, Jack Lemmon category.” Gay men almost never get the label—and the clunky term “everywoman” has never really caught on. (The idea of being “every woman,” as popularized by Chaka Khan, is a distinct notion, which involves the ability to “cast a spell,” “mix a special brew,” and “put fire inside of you”—hardly ordinary traits. Another related but ultimately quite different notion is the idea of being “everyday people”—note the inclusive, gender-neutral plural.)
The whole concept of the Everyman is a pernicious one, however well intended. It perpetuates bogus received ideas about what sorts of characters are “relatable,” and, more broadly, who is “normal” and who is not. It’s long past time for the term to be dropped into history’s dustbin and left there.
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