Graham shares his thoughts on David Mitchell's 'Cloud Atlas'.

One of our longest serving bookworms, Graham Wright, shares his thoughts on Cloud Atlas with us...

To read or not to read (before seeing the movie) … I have long held to the opinion that reading a novel, creating mind pictures of the characters and your version of the plot can lead to disappointment when you view the movie (the visualization of Dune by Frank Herbert being one example, Tom Cruise as Jack Reacher is another). Cloud Atlas by David 
Mitchell bucks the trend. 

Nantwich Bookworms (@booknantwich on twitter) first read, then discussed over a pint (Black Lion) and finally viewed the Cloud Atlas at Stoke Film Theatre (@StokeFilm). 

Cloud Atlas is a beautiful, complicated but highly enjoyable read and I approached the movie wondering how the director would handle the books' plot as there are several individual but linked stories across the timelines of the book. I was pleasantly surprised. 

The movie travels from Victorian Australasia to Hawaii in a post civilization collapse future with numerous linking characters scattered through the scenes. The memorable cast (Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Jim Broadbent et al) appearing as many and diverse characters (male and female) and there is a game to had recognising all the actors many characters. The Sci-Fi elements of the movie remind one of Blade Runner in its visualization (no complaints here!). There are comic moments and the odd moments of violence. The pigeon English used in the Hawaii scenes takes some understanding and 70’s California brought back a few memories.It was all very enjoyable and in my humble opinion Cloud Atlas is destined to become a cult movie and one that will stand several viewings … but please read the book first!