Cloud Atlas

Weeks after watching this film, I am still unable to write a review.

Not because I can't write, I can gas on about most things.  But because Cloud Atlas so so damned confusing.

Supposedly telling many tales of the same crossing paths of destiny over many time frames and eras, I found it confising and unable to tell they story well.

Much like The Time Travellers Wife, the film never really executes the twisty turns of time as well as the imagination can whilst reading the book.

I had hoped the Wachowski Sibling's return to such a large and ambitious project would bring back the former glory of The Matrix, a film so steeped in timeshifts and alternate realities and still able to make sense, that perhaps Cloud Atlas would be spellbinding and mindbending.

Instead I thought it was boring much of the time with so many characters I didn't have enough time to care about and beyond stupid character choices.  Seeing Halle Berry as a White Jewess, Ben Wishaw as a woman, or Hugh Grant as a Japanese pimp (complete with eyes slanted) was all too much of a joke.

All in all, its not for everyone and if you loved book, don't see it.  Actually, no one see it, its crap.

Stoker

Chan-Wook Park's first English speaking film is a story of gothic proportions and tells of a young teenagers sexual awakening after she meets her long lost uncle following the sudden and tragic death of her father.

India Stoker (excellently and subtly played by Mia Wasikowska) is a quiet and meek looking girl.  Harmless looking but don’t let that fool you.  Underneath all that is a meditative girl, one that studies everything and keeps her cards close to her chest.  When her father dies suddenly in a car accident, she holds back on her emotions as her mother Evelyn (Nicole Kidman) publicly falls to pieces.  Their relationship is not close by any means but when Charles (Matthew Goode) arrives in town for the funeral, that gap between mother and daughter is driven further apart.

Don’t be fooled by the title.  I had expected this would be a modern day Dracula story.  Stoker is more than that.  And sexier than that too. Wasikowska is an absolute gem in this film.  Having only seen her in Disney’s Alice in Wonderland (2010), I had no real opinion of her acting talent.  Wasikowska is not a showy actress, there are no theatrics in this film.  She plays out every emotion through her eyes in a way I haven’t seen in a young actor in some time.  And that is the essence of this film.  It’s a really slow burner, you don’t really know where it’s going to sometimes.  But all that time spent painting a bigger picture builds the tension so high that they pay off is immense.

Nicole Kidman may have made some turkeys in her time but she really knows how to act.  She gets the over emotional, yummy mummy, sexy older siren thing down perfectly.  While everyone else is trying to keep their emotions to a minimum, she plays her character loud and melodramatic.  But it suits the story perfectly.

Matthew Goode is fantastic throughout this film and it’s a good chance this will propel him to big things.  While he has been acting solidly for many years now and done some amazing roles (Match Point, A Single Man, Dancing on the Edge), this is the film we have seen him really shine.  As the slightly creepy and sexy uncle Charlie, you want to fancy him but you keep him at arm’s length at all times.  His character draws you in closer and closer until you can’t take any more.  Like Wasikowska, Goode plays Charlie with his eyes. 

Park spends a lot of time with tight close up shots of faces and eyes so you can see each twitch of a muscle or tightening of the eyes.  We see a lot of India’s hands on the piano, lovingly stroking the keys, almost flirting with it.  At times I couldn’t tell if each shot meant something or was overdone.  Sometimes the visuals were stunning and really played well with the slowness of the plot, but at times I wondered if it was trying too hard.  I particularly loved the song on the end credits, Becomes the Colour by Emily Wells.  Beautiful.

Worth a mention but the script was written by none other than the gorgeous actor Wentworth Miller of Prison Break fame.  Not just a pretty face!

By the end of the film, I think the pay-off was worth it and overall makes a quite visually stunning and thoroughly creepy thriller.