By Jonathan M. Gornet ’14
THE ROUNDUP

“Cloud Atlas” starring Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, Halle Barry, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae and Jim Broadbent

9 out of 10

A fascinating feat of its own, “Cloud Atlas” accomplished the task of combining six different stories each unique to its own.

It definitely went above and beyond standard movie plots.

The movie conveyed a relatively new concept of multiple dimensions, especially in the realm of time and the idea of the butterfly effect.  Anything a character did affected another character in the future.

This movie is based on the book “Cloud Atlas,” written by David Mitchell.  The theme of the story is “everything is connected,” which was written on the movie poster of “Cloud Atlas.”  This phrase states its point through its six stories.

These six stories are used to portray how characters are connected, which seems hard to follow at first.  In order to help with this, the movie constantly changes scenes to each story so there is a constant flow.  The scenes do not change so frequent that it becomes chaotic and gives each story the correct length so that it is obvious what went on in each part.

Actors that star in this movie are Tom Hanks, Hugh Grant, Halle Barry, Jim Sturgess, Doona Bae and Jim Broadbent.  These actors often take multiple parts in the movie, which can range from being a protagonist of one of the stories and the antagonist of another story.

Some criticisms are that the movie tries to refer to a quote or moment that happened at the beginning, but usually is forgotten by then.  It does not make it harder to understand, but it takes away the significance of the individual stories.

Overall, it is fascinating to watch how everything does connect, and how complex idea can made so simple.