Movie Review - Cloud Atlas

Last night my friend Trish drove us one and half hours north so we could see Cloud Atlas.  We got there a little later than we would have liked and had to sit five rows from the front. The screen seemed enormous right in front of us. Even though this is a long movie, we did not notice how close we were, or feel the time. Cloud Atlas is mesmerizing. It is a movie I know I will see at least once more, in fact maybe more than that.
I need to say first of all, if you are a person who does not like watching movement back and forth through time, then this movie is not for you. The concept of many lives and the intersection of a group of people is fascinating.  I spent time, trying to pick out the actors in the different time sequences. At first it was a bit unsettling, or distracting as one goes from one time to another then other quite quickly and then you begin to piece together the different story lines. As the movie begins to go into the middle and the story lines spend longer in the time frames you get to become involved with the different characters.
Does this movie answer the question of reincarnation (of which I am a proponent) does it suggest, as I believe it does, that all time is one, and these events in these different time settings are taking place at the same time Hard to tell, which is why one needs to see this movie several times.
The main actors play six roles each, then others play less, but most are in each story line. Tom Hanks plays a wide range of roles as does Halle Berry (some were hard to figure who she is until the end. Oh yes, you must remain to the end when the credits roll, and then they show you all the characters they played. What a treat.
Trish and I, as we discussed the movie after, agreed some we picked out right away, others no. This happened particularly with Hugh Grant's six roles.  I only had him pegged in a couple of them.  But the acting, make up and sets are phenomenal. Other actors, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving,(who plays a wonderful Devil) Jim Sturgess, whom I fell in love with in several of his roles, Doone Bae, Ben Whishaw, Keith David, (quite easy to pick out due to his size and look,) James D'Arcy, Xun SZhou, and Susan Saradan (also easy to pick out due to her look). And the list goes on. Most playing six roles, some less.
There is some comic relief, especially when four (including Jim Broadbent) go to 'escape'  the home they have been put into. I believed I ended up clapping when they succeeded. Just shows how much you get into the story lines being portrayed.
This is not your usual everyday movie, if you like to be entertained for several hours, have a guessing game as to who the character you are watching is being played by and see some great sets, magnificent make up, then see this movie. The concept of reincarnation is not really discussed, it is touched upon in some dialogue, but mostly visually shown how we inter react in many different lives playing different parts.
One criticism, and another reason to see this movie again. Sometimes, the language, especially in one story line, is very hard to understand. It easier the longer you watch that time line, but still, much of it is lost in translation.
If you can stand time jumps in movies, and follow story lines and enjoy how one person will say something in one story line and then have it shown in several following story lines go see this movie.  For me, I'll definitely being seeing it again.
4 1/2 out of 5.  (loss of 1/2 a point due t some of the dialogue is not understandable, even though it does fit in with the movie).
I went and watched this movie again yesterday. I enjoyed it more, if possible, than the first time.  Why? Because I knew what was coming and was able to spend time on catching things I had missed the first time. Its surprising how much you miss when you are trying to keep up with the plot lines, the different characters etc. I had fun this time. Also, making it more enjoyable I was able to catch the language which I complained about in my original review. I would say I understood 90% of it this time.  Next time, I'll be able to catch it all - hopefully. This is a great movie, the philosophy, the levels, the depths, the social comment, the everything is really worth seeing. Hope you go!