Sydney Avey
Dynamic Woman — Changing Times
Cloud Atlas Shrugged
Movie reviews set us up to believe that Cloud Atlas is unique in the way it zips us back and forth through time and shows us how people and events connect from era to era, but Jim Broadbent’s character, sitting at his typewriter, gives us a clue—this movie is the equivalent of literary fiction in structure; it uses “tricksy” devices, flashbacks, foreshadows, repetition and such to make a point that, in the end, is not all that profound: everything is connected.
Most interesting is the question the movie poses: How much leeway do we have to change the natural order of things? What can and should be changed and what should be left alone?
One thing Cloud Atlas leaves alone is the existence and relevance of God. Clearly there is a devil, and he is Biblical in nature. He tempts, he accuses, he lies, and he torments man at his most vulnerable moments. But is there a God? Perhaps, if you care to entertain that possibility, shrugs the lovely young woman who sacrifices herself for love and truth.
We found the movie fascinating more for its craft than its message, which is not brain science after all. I fear many will work too hard trying to follow the connections and, like the women who sat behind us, will rise from their seats as the credits roll saying “I didn’t get it.” And that is the message. What we don’t learn in one era we will repeat in some fashion until time is no more.
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