The first, admirably long trailer for Cloud Atlas showcased an insight into breathtakingly ambitious vision brimming with ideas of fate, determinism, lost hopes and seeming interconnection of the universe. Not only that but the film looks beautiful, a searing and bold combination of period and futuristic worlds with actors performing in a variety of roles of different genders and ethnicities.
Today, a new and much shorter trailer for the film has arrived online which does give us some brief glimpses at new footage, with some bits showing off the other roles being played by Ben Whishaw, Hugh Grant and Hugo Weaving that we hadn’t seen yet.
There are parts that are broadly comedic, such as Jim Broadbent having a plunger shoved in his face, and moments which are beautifully poignant, such as Broadbent’s recognition of the piano sextet being played by Whishaw.
Getting that tone right to create a cohesive film is quite a challenge, especially when there were two units on the film being built from two different directorial styles. There’s also some reasonably dodgy, very attention seeking make up work which is needed in order to transform the actors.
Whether brilliant or terrible, Cloud Atlas will definitely have people talking. A film like this which spans such a diverse array of time periods with actors playing a wide variety of parts has no precedence and it isn’t likely to be repeated again. It looks to contain some excellent performances too with Whishaw, Broadbent and Susan Sarandon looking to lend their ever reliable presences completely to the experience of the film. Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Grant also seem to be seeking to redeem themselves after a slew of movies which only can be described as duds.
Simply put it is a film that will be unmissable. It is so rare we get a film like this and even if there is a very big chance it will be failure, it will at least be an admirable failure.
The lucky people who are heading to TIFF will get to see Cloud Atlas this weekend, the rest of us will have to wait until October 26th to see if Tom Tykwer and the Wachowski’s vision is a success.
Check out the trailer below.
