dvd of the week
David Mitchell’s novel Cloud Atlas, considered one of the greatest literary achievements of the last two decades by many critics, was thought to be impossible to adapt for film. There are six narratives that take place in wildly different times and spaces and they’re connected in weird and wonderful ways.
The film is a towering achievement of editing, writing and directing, with several great performances (Jim Broadbent, Tom Hanks and Doona Bae), but it is not nearly as deep as writer-directors Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer and Andy Wachowski want you to believe. But the fact that they made a coherent, entertaining movie out of Mitchell’s post-modern masterpiece is a feat to behold.
