Cloud Atlas (2012)

CLOUD ATLAS  (2012)  ¢ ¢ ¢ ¢
    D: Andy Wachowski, Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer
    Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent,
    Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, Hugo Weaving,
    Hugh Grant, Jim Sturgess, Susan Sarandon,
    Keith David, James D'Arcy, David Gyasi
It might sound crazy, but the movie "Cloud Atlas" probably comes the closest to for scope, ambition and multitrack storytelling is D.W. Griffith's 1916 silent epic "Intolerance". Griffith's film told four parallel stories in four different time frames simultaneously, cutting between them. "Cloud Atlas" tops that, telling six stories in six different time frames, with some familiar actors turning up in multiple roles. (Sometimes you'll recognize them, and sometimes - believe me - you won't.) A recurring theme is how everything's connected, and how the Wachowskis and Tom Tykwer found the financing to do something so high-risk and offbeat is anybody's guess. It's like this intricate puzzle where the pieces are pieces of time, some just a few seconds long and some a few minutes, and every time you turn a piece over, new pieces appear. It'll take time and multiple viewings to try to unravel it all. Good luck with that. And have fun.