• Pacific Ocean: I really liked how this story keeps tension by having the role of Dr. Henry Goose be seemingly helpful at first, but grow darker over time, when you're used to Tom Hanks being a good character. It's really well presented, and it manages the tension amazingly well (plus it also shows his "soul's" affinity for the little gems and other trinkets that he often has). The whole story of him inadvertently rescuing Autua, and how they were going to kill him on the ship without actually allowing him to prove himself were incredibly striking. This story dealt with so many shifts of character, the expectations and order that it was presented in was brilliantly arranged. I especially loved how Adam and Tilda's love story managed to parallel with Sonmi-451 & Hae-Joo Chang's romance, standing up for the cloned servants and starting a revolution after they'd denounced slavery. Their story is such a beautiful growing point for what their "souls" accomplish together later.
• UK, 1936: Oh dear god, this story. It doesn't even matter that the moment gets revealed in the opening of the film. This is the story that totally hit me and managed to make tears pour out of my eyes in the theater. The little descriptive ways that he's always talking about Sixsmith just got to me and really sells how Frobisher feels about him. It doesn't help that this is the origin of the Cloud Atlas Sextet, and that song just rips at my heart now every time I hear it. The intercutting between Frobisher & Adam's story via the journal was wonderfully executed. I was rather sad that the only homosexual relationship ended tragically, and I can't recall if Frobisher's words to Sixsmith ever reached a time where they were able to be happy together.
• Cali, 1973: The pacing and twists in this story are just absolutely BRILLIANT. Once the tension ratchets up, it bleeds into all the other stories, and never lets go. From her surviving the crash, to Napier hiding in her apartment (right after the mystery novel quote), to the lady who saves them, the pacing and execution is amazing. The way it reaches into the other stories, like the post-apocalypse with the Manager of the plant also being the head of the Kona cannibals in the apocalypse that guard a similar area, Tom Hanks recognizing Luisa and falling for her and dying after trying to do the right thing, and Luisa's "soul" recognizing the Cloud Atlas song (with Frobisher as the record store owner). Also, Sixsmith also dying from a gunshot to the head was a connection that I only made well after the film when I was reflecting on it.
• UK, 2012: Holy Christ. This story was FULL of comedy and absolute marvelousness. Tom Hanks as the tough writer started things off with a bang, and it just never lets up. The already established "don't trust the soul of Hugo Weaving" was well in place, and when he appears as Nurse Noakes, it was equally terrifying and hilarious. Just all around great. The reference to Soylent Green before the reveal with Sonmi-451 was an excellent way to reflect on that moment later on. The conclusion in the bar and just all the senile old moments were SO damn enjoyable. The pacing really balances everything else out well, and makes me amazed at how elegantly they manage the potential for emotional whiplash in the film.
• Neo Seoul, 2144: The way this story starts out is so mysteriously sinister, it almost feels out of place, but the way that everything else ties into it is so amazing. It's easily got the largest number of (obviously) returning "souls" that parallel their roles in other stories - which is often apparent because of the makeup being the least convincing while still having a very serious tone. Doona Bae's performance is. just. stunning. She delivers on all fronts, and goes from being endlessly timid towards the most basic freedom to absolutely unwaveringly resolute in the face of unstoppable danger, and she carries any flaws that this section had for me. The action, mixed with the very believable growth that she undergoes in her role as a saviour for the rebellion is flawlessly executed. The sheer brutality that takes place on a human level brings up so many complex feeling, issues, and thoughts, that I don't really know how to sum it up at all.
• Hawaii, 2321: I LOVE Tom Hanks' role here. The fractured speech patterns, and post apocalyptic dichotomy between those with and those without is amazingly well constructed. I also love the idea of Zachry's beliefs haunting him almost physically in the form of Old Georgie. The simple survival against the most complex and small things are on display, in the planet dying, and human conflict, or just hazard. How it marries this together with Tom Hanks' "soul's" redemption and love of Meronym was carefully timed for the rest of the film, and the way that it literally loops the final shot to the one in the opening of the film just sealed the crisscrossing and non-linear narrative into an absolutely beautiful piece.