Movie Review:Cloud Atlas and Les Miserables

Friday, January 11, 2013 Liyana Hanim 0 Comments



I watched Cloud Atlas with the boyfriend which he downloaded,on New Year's Eve.Yes,after his family's bbq,we stayed in and watched a movie instead of going out.Homebodies!haha

The duration of this movie is long.Almost 3 hours.But the six stories in the movie are very interesting though at times a bit confusing because a lot of the actors played different characters throughout the entire movie.The movie is based from the 2004 book of the same name written by David Mitchell.Below are some of the pictures of the transformation.


The timeline of the characters
I definitely recommend people to watch this movie as it has depth and is an adventure..although they're different,it reminded me of Stardust.

I'll just give my short review of all 6 stories down below:

1) "The Pacific Journal of Adam Ewing" (1849)

Adam Ewing(played by Jim Sturgess) is a lawyer travelled the south pacific ocean to secure a business deal with a reverend for his father in law.He encountered a slave that was whipped before his eyes while he was at an island,to meet the reverend.The slave,named Autua,stowed away in the ship he was on and managed to save him from Dr.Henry who wanted to poison him instead of making him better.

This story was sad especially the whipping part.Adam was reluctant to save Autua but I like the end of it..especially when he said to his father in law "What is an ocean but a multitude of drops?"

2)"Letters from Zedelghem" (1936)

This part of the story revolves around Robert Frobisher(played by Ben Whishaw) whom at first I thought was gay,but turned out to be a bisexual.He's a young musician who became the famous composer,Vyvyan Ayrs's amanuensis(a word I learned thanks to this movie haha).

But Ayrs wanted to take the credit for Frobisher's own masterpiece "The Cloud Sextet"(which you can hear in Neo Seoul--An Orison of Sonmi~451" (2144)) and threaten to expose Frobisher's sexuality.During a scuffle,Ayrs was shot by Frobisher and he ran of.There was a sad ending to this story which I won't reveal.Oh,Frobisher's gay lover is Sixsmith which is linked with the story below.

3)"Half-Lives: The First Luisa Rey Mystery" (1973)
Luisa Rey(Halle Berry) is a journalist who was told by Sixsmith(who's old now,refer picture above) regarding a conspiracy about a nuclear reactor.To be honest,this was my least favorite story in the movie.But it showed us how sorry and lonely Sixsmith became without Frobisher.

4)"The Ghastly Ordeal of Timothy Cavendish" (2012
This is the funniest part of the movie.Timothy Cavendish is a publisher and he cheated one of his clients out of money and had to repay them back a large sum so he asked for his brother's helped only to be accidentally tricked into entering a nursing home and he can't get out due to Nurse Oakes.haha 

It's really funny especially when Cavendish and his friends in the nursing home tried to get out of there.My favorite part is the pub scene!!Watch for that :)

5)"An Orison of Sonmi~451" (2144)
This is my favorite part of the movie.It was really sad what happened to the clones.Sonmi's speech was also very moving.I wondered if this can happen in the future.This happens in Neo Seoul.Clones are used as waitress,they eat soap,they have no say in anything whatsoever..their job is only to serve the customers and letting them grope them or whatever.It is sad.

Sonmi is one of the clones who wanted to be more than just that.She wanted to know the world around her and have a life outside of the fast food restaurant.Thanks to Hae Joo Chang,she managed to escaped the confinements of the restaurant and see how the world outside looks like.

The fate of the clones is really sad especially..you just have to watch the clones 'factory' scene and also the part where Sonmi gave her speech before the Resistance was attacked.

6)"Sloosha's Crossin' an' Ev'rythin' After" (2321)




I was confused with this part because I thought that it happened in the old age because of the look of the place.Aborigines and living in the jungle and such.But actually this part happens years after Neo Seoul!I love the ending of this part because it was very sweet.


I watched this movie on 1st of January 2013 with the boyfriend.I bloody loved it especially when Anne Hathaway 'I dreamed a dream'.There were some boring parts and it was annoying when the couple next to us,particularly the Malay dude who didn't understand that Les Mis is 100% a musical.-_-


This movie is quite long but the singing is top notch.I was surprised that Anne Hathaway can sing very very well.And she looked so awful when she became a prostitute.She practically starved herself for the part in order to look dead.

Anne looked so different and gaunt
If you go to Youtube and search her interview with The Today Show,she said that she doesn't like to discuss what it took for her to loose so much weight because she doesn't recommend it to normal people and she doesn't want to glamorize it.Which in my opinion was cool of her.In a magazine interview she said that she was really temperamental during her food-deprived days.I think I read somewhere that she only ate 2 thin oat paste in a day!Yikesss

Also,Hugh Jackman didn't drink any water for 36 hours prior to the first scene of the movie.He said this in an interview with the cast.He said it was really really painful.In case you didn't know,both Anne Hathaway and Hugh Jackman have been nominated for an Oscar for their roles in this movie!

I won't reveal much about this movie because I believe people should watch it for themselves.Plus,I have given way too much spoilers for Cloud Atlas already hahaha.



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