Cloud Atlas: Why I Loved It

Let me count the ways, but let me indulge in a smidgen of backstory, first.I saw the trailers for "Cloud Atlas," and the only thing that interested me about it via those trailers was Tom Hanks. I've seen every movie he's been in, so it was on my radar for that reason.A couple weeks ago, a fellow Reiki practitioner saw it and posted this on Facebook:"Saw the Movie Cloud Atlas last night. It was incredible, but not one that you can be distracted watching. Definitely one of the best movies I have seen in a long time."Since this woman and I share similar beliefs and thoughts about how this world of ours functions, that was my tipping point.I waited until the new (and beautifully-appointed, I might add) cinema in my area opened. Wednesday afternoon afforded me the opportunity to invest time (170 minutes of it) in seeing the movie. It was time well-spent.

Souls cross ages like clouds cross skies, an' tho' a cloud's shape nor hue nor size don't stay the same, it\'s still a cloud an' so is a soul. Who can say where the cloud's blowed from or who the soul'll be 'morrow? ~David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

"Cloud Atlas" explores the concepts of Karma and reincarnation in relation to (in my interpretation) Einstein's Theory of Relativity, which NASA proved last year.They are integrated in a complex and compelling way using six narratives from six different times, and spanning, in my approximation, nearly half a millennium - all intertwined.To boil it down to its root, David Mitchell's story is that of eight souls (ably portrayed by Tom Hanks, Jim Sturgess, Jim Broadbent, Halle Berry, James D'Arcy, Hugo Weaving, Doona Bae and Hugh Grant) who, from lifetime to lifetime, make choices and commit acts which affect not only their present life, but their past and future lives.

Doona Bae, in her futuristic role as Somni-451, a clone who becomes a reluctant revolutionary, served up the dialogue that left me wanting to commit it memory.The quote below, one of Somni's, is in answer to a question regarding her love for a "pure-blood," who was killed during a defense of her. It speaks to her understanding of the movement of souls through time.

A door will close but another will open and I believe that when it does, I will find him there, waiting for me. ~David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas

I can feel my heart expand just in the reading of that quote.I believe strongly, based on experience, in the themes presented in this magnificent film, adapted from the book by David Mitchell.In fact, I have adopted and live by the principle that everything I do and say, whether or not it is witnessed by another, affects someone, somewhere, sometime.

Do you believe in reincarnation? Have you read or seen "Cloud Atlas" and, if yes, what did you think?