Feb 23rd
Cloud Atlas* (15)
(Barbican Cinema)                  

US/Ger/GB/Hong Kong,Singapore 2012. Warner Bros/Cloud Atlas.X-File Creative Pool/Anarchos/A Company/Art Degeto. 171m. ws

From 1849 to the post-apocalyptic future, successive generations are affected by the seemingly small but defiant acts of their ancestors.
Long, often unintelligible compendium, with the original novel's structure of one story recalled by the other interloped by irritating cross-cutting  of Intolerance-like intensity, but before the audience has been allowed to engage with the characters. The actors do their best to sustain the interest, despite a weird variety of guises and settings that vary from colonial drama to Star Wars-style fantasy.

Written and Directed by: Lana Wachowski, Tom Twyker, Andy Wachowski, from the novel by David Mitchell.
Producers: Grant Hill, Stefan Arndt, Tom Twyker, Andy Wachowski, Lara Wachowski.
Starring (in no particular order): Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent, Doona Bae, Ben Whishaw, Jim Sturgess, James D'Arcy, Zhou Xun, David Gyasi, Keith David, Hugo Weaving, Hugh Grant, Susan Sarandon.
Photography: Frank Griebe, John Toll.
Music: Reinhold Heil, Johnny Klimek, Tom Tykwer.
Editing: Alexander Berner.
Production Design: Hugh Bateup, Uli Hanisch.
Special Effects Supervisor: Uli Nefzer.

+ SONMI-451 (Doona Bae): "Truth is singular. Its versions are mistruths."

Philip French review

Roger Ebert review