Watch: Our 'Cloud Atlas' interviews conclude with Bae, Sturgess, Whishaw and D'arcy

We wrap up our cast conversations by talking to the four corners of the film's love stories

By Drew McWeenyFriday, Oct 26, 2012 11:50 PM

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"Cloud Atlas," ultimately, is a love story. Or more accurately, it's three love stories told over the span of hundreds and hundreds of years. The overarching couple whose story drives the entire film is played in various forms by Tom Hanks and Halle Berry, but they certainly aren't the only thing about the film that is affecting.

Jim Sturgess is taking some serious heat right now for the prosthetic make-up he wears in one of the film's shorelines, where he appears as Chang, the agent tasked with liberating both the mind and the body of Sonmi 451, a service clone in Neo Seoul played by Doona Bae. Their story is perhaps my favorite thing about the movie, and I wanted to talk to them about creating the very delicate rapport their characters share in the film as well as her reaction to seeing him in his make-up for the first time.

I was also struck by just how beautifully etched the relationship is between the characters played by Ben Whishaw and James D'Arcy in one of the other storylines. There's a sadness to their love story, mandated in part by the position of Frobisher (Whishaw) in society and in part by the times in which they live, but they manage to make it seem deeply affecting in just a few scenes where they appear together. Everything else is about the longing, and that's something "Cloud Atlas" does very well. It's a film about the things that unite us as well as the things that drive us apart.

I feel like the entire cast was so proud of their work at the press day, and certainly when I spoke with the filmmakers, there is a sense that they made the film they set out to make. Now that it's out and you guys can finally see it for yourself, I'm curious to see if it hits you the same way it did me, or if you're left cold by it, or if you're outraged… in short, I want to hear your feedback.

"Cloud Atlas" is now playing in theaters everywhere.

Drew McWeeny
Film Editor

A respected critic and commentator for fifteen years, Drew McWeeny helped create the online film community as "Moriarty" at Ain't It Cool News, and now proudly leads two budding Film Nerds in their ongoing movie education.

Related Searches: Doona Bae, Jim Sturgess, Ben Whishaw, James D'Arcy, Interview, Cloud Atlas

jweezy

I loved it. My favorite story was the Neo Seoul one. All the performances were amazing and by the time the credits rolled, I couldn't believe it was almost 3 hours later. I really don't care too much about Oscars and such, but there's no way they can be ignored for Editing. I was never once lost and the pacing was incredible. I hope this does well. It's been such a great year for mature Sci-Fi.
October 27, 2012 at 5:02AM EST Reply to Comment
LW

Saw it today and just adored it. Beautiful onscreen the way I expect from these directors, but they also managed to keep the six stories going in a way that felt perfectly natural to me and that occasionally had me delighted with the cuts in between. Some of it was a bit silly, but they managed to mine so much feeling out of all the scenarios.
October 27, 2012 at 5:16PM EST Reply to Comment
Max

It didn't bother me at all. It served the film perfectly and to tell you the truth, if I hadn't forced myself to notice, I wouldn't have while watching it. I'm tired of people bitching about it. It's not like they had him made up Asian and become a crappy driver or suddenly be incapable of pronouncing the letter "R". It served the story they were telling and worked perfectly. Would it have made more sense to hire an Asian actor? I don't think so. The whole point is the actors are all playing multiple roles. I think everyone should get over it and enjoy what I think is the best movie of the year.
October 28, 2012 at 5:33AM EST Reply to Comment
Mark

Breathtaking. It wasn't just faithful to the book. It was better in the book in some respects. There were moments that were so incredibly sublime, they completely immersed me. It's epic, transcendent, challenging, and will divide audiences. I do not expect Cloud Atlas to do well at all at the Box Office. In fact, the early news on that is not good. But this is one of those films that pushes the dialogue of the art of film making forward (regardless of how you feel about the finished product), and will resonate with a core group of people forever more. Cloud Atlas will not fade into obscurity. It will change the way we think about what movies can do. And that matters so much more than how much money it pulled in over a weekend in the U.S.A. There is a bigger world out there, and Cloud Atlas is for that world.
October 28, 2012 at 8:19PM EST Reply to Comment
- crackersphinn absolutely about the movie being better than the book in some respects. and i love love love the book. the fact is, the themes of this book can be explored in a movie in ways a novel really can't. the directors do this primarily through their editing (brilliant) and make-up effects (stunning). when i left the theater all i could say was, "i can't believe this movie exists." i wish i could write a letter to lana, larry and tom thanking them for this movie.
  October 30, 2012 at 12:11AM EST