Cloud Atlas by David Mitchell
Cloud Atlas is an amazing masterpiece in both film and book. I read excerpts from the book and then immediately ordered the novel. It's a masterpiece of modern Literature. Mitchell has a wondrous gift for beautiful language, his characters are rich and vibrant, and he certainly knows how to brushstroke a story. There's just enough color for a narrative and, yet, still enough untold to contemplate.
The symbolism is ingenious and the partially veiled metaphysical elements, which some would say are the purpose of the novel, are one of its greatest assets. I loved it and wish I could create something even one tenth its equal.
I am not surprised that many readers/viewers didn't get it. It has that same mystery as "The Fountain." You can't just breeze thru a single performance on the big screen and "get it all at once," like watching those spoon-fed superhero flicks that emerged from the limited vocabulary of comic books (not that I don't love my favorite Iron Man, Batman, Hulk, and Thor adventures, because I do.)
But this film (and the novel) are from a different genre—a different class—than the action-adventure, comic book, Nintendo-Xbox gaming world. Not that literature and action-adventure are mutually exclusive, but only that it's rare.
Films that stay with you long after the screen has darkened are those that made you think or question the plot or the characters or the ending or even the entire story. These are the stories that influence and alter our lives.
I vote five out of five stars. See it no less than six times and read it at least a dozen times! It will make you a better writer, a better critic, a better person.
