Cloud Atlas-t

Our lives are not our own. From womb to tomb, we are bound to others. Past and present. And by each crime, and every kindness, we birth our future.

I have been meaning to watch this for ages. I had planned to see it the day it came out but then I got a little excited for Side Effects (which I will get around to reviewing one day, I promise) and saw that first, and then Oz and poor little Cloud Atlas got pushed to last on my list. 
Which was really stupid of me because out of these three films it was by far the best. 
Ben Whishaw was in it. The End. 
Okay, no, that's not the only reason I loved it (but it is very high up there!).

I saw it about a week ago, and every time I have tried to explain it I struggle big time. So you'll have to bear with me. From what I understand, it's about one soul throughout many different lifetimes. The soul is played by a different actor in each timeline. This includes Tom Hanks on another planet in the future, Ben Whishaw in pre-WWII England and Doona Bae in neo-Seoul to name a few. The actors of the soul also play a role in the other timelines too, but not as the owner of the soul anymore (this makes no sense, I know).  
It does go for an awful long time - 163 minutes to be exact - and you should be prepared to concentrate for that amount of time. That said, I was never bored. I did check the time once and was extremely surprised to find I had only been in the cinema for an hour. I didn't mind though, I just thought it had been longer than that. 
The timelines do not go in any sort of order, and I think that may be where the film was let down a little. I would be just getting into the story of one timeline and it would change to another. The book, from what I understand, is done one at a time, and perhaps the movie should have been as well. 

There were also definitely timelines that I enjoyed more than others. Surprisingly I really enjoyed the Neo-Seoul timeline, and I thought the actual story of that one was the most interesting. My least favourite was Tom Hanks "Big Island" timeline. I thoroughly enjoyed Hugh Grant in this storyline (especially the costuming!) but that was where it ended. Why did they have to speak in that ridiculous way? It was so confusing! Sometimes I actually thought they were speaking a different language. Other times I would be just getting the hang of it and it would switch to another timeline. I found that to be very distracting, and I'm sure I would have enjoyed it more if I could just understand what they were talking about. 
The time where Ben Whishaw is the soul, and he plays Robert Frobisher in 1936 England, was my favourite out of all of them. I can't explain to you how perfect I find Ben's acting. It's flawless, he is flawless. 

The cinematography of the film was stunning, and I don't understand how they put together all those different sets and costumes, it just amazes me! The scene that always springs to mind is when Frobisher and Sixsmith are in the china shop and are throwing the plates across the room.

Although I had some problems with the film, they were minor compared to how much I really loved it. I have recommended it to everyone. I give it 9 out of 10.