Cloud Atlas (2012)

3/5

Cloud Atlas is an ambitious project for even the most visionary directors. It tracks six separate storylines that connect and intersect in moods and themes. Directed by three people, the Wachowskis and Tykwer attempt to use the same actors across time and space to link the storylines. That unnecessary dedication to a concept is perhaps the reason for dressing its white actors up in "yellowface" to make them look Asian, which is off-putting and unsettling to say the least. Ignoring that, the movie still has its imperfections and failings.

Although the movie intercuts six stories remarkably well, it feels lopsided and uneven. The stories are given equal weight even though some are far less interesting than others. While the book tells the various fictions sequentially, the movie unifies them into a singular, simultaneous narrative. I'm not sure it was the right decision, as it comes with numerous compromises, but it shows that the directors care about the story enough to attempt to adapt the ideas instead of the words.

As the movie ended, I wasn't sure what I got out of it. Its self-importance was lost on me. I felt like the movie is engaging and compelling for its storytelling, but not its story; its filmmaking, but not its content. It's appealing but empty, exciting but unsatisfying. It was made to be bold, not to be felt. I can't imagine anyone going into the theater will go out feeling anything but disappointed.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1371111/

Love Actually (2003)

3/5

The flaw in this feel-good romantic comedy is that it focuses too much on its moral. It's about love's ubiquity, so all the subtleties and nuances and quirks in the relationships are brought to the forefront and shoved in your face. It is no longer subtle, nuanced, and quirky. Moments that would have been powerful had they been left understated were made blunt and therefore ineffectual. To speak of specifics, the movie starts in voice-over talking about how we can see that "love actually is all around" (where the movie gets its title from) if we look at all the people in an airport. There is one scene at the end of the movie that takes place in an airport, and could have been a stunning finale. Instead of opting to end on that note, however, the director decided to bring practically every character we've met in this interlocking tale (5 or 6 couples) into an airport one month later for no reason other than to beat into our brains his message. Not to mention the overpowering and ever-present music, which made a lot of the scenes candy-coated and Hallmark.

Luckily, there were some genuinely funny moments. There were some unexpected twists and turns that I liked (on the emotive and plot fronts). There was one scene that was actually incredible, where a woman goes upstairs after she discovers her husband's infidelity and starts crying, then comes back down and pretends everything is alright. (It felt a lot like the montage in Magnolia where all the characters sing along to Aimee Mann's Wise Up.) Another positive: Keira Knightley somehow surpassed what I thought were the boundaries of hotness. By a lot.

IMDb link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0314331/