Cloud Atlas – No Spoilers! (16th March 2013)
Fiona had read the book a while back and was keen to see the movie. We finally looked for a cinema with a decent screen to see it.
After much deliberation, we chose the Odeon in Covent Garden. It’s a compact venue but a big, modern screen. A good experience; the audience were quiet once the movie started.
As for the film: wow! It is super complicated if you want to understand all of it at once. A more relaxing option is to simply relish the drama, variety and spectacle through which each entwined story is delivered.
We got near-perfectly central position after negotiating a held seat onto the other side of the person who was holding it. We were in a flat area looking slightly up, so no problems with people’s heads in front.
Each story is in a different era. You can always tell which story you are watching by the exceptional costumes, settings and accents.
The near-future stuff was amazing because it felt so natural. TRON: Legacy is deliberately artificial. Other scenes are of tribes on a sunny island and sailors on a galleon (which always seems to be in a storm) to a old people’s home.
They all blend in due to the humanity of the performances. The sci-fi scenes are perhaps made all the more poignant by the stifled, restrictive culture it portrays.
A spectacular movie, one which I would probably have found boring if it were on TV 10 years ago. But on a big screen and at this time in my life, it’s an instant favourite.
We talked about the film with friends on our skiing trip and found some fascinating new interpretations. It’s a movie you can engage in with as much complexity as you like. Certainly worthy of (and rewarding to) intelligent discussion afterwards.