CLOUD ATLAS: AN ADAPTATION THAT REPRESENTS THE DIRECTORS AND THE SOURCE MATERIAL

The Wachowskis’ (and Tom Tyker’s) Cloud Atlas stays true to the book it is based on, but also to what the directors have come to be known for.

The Wachowskis and Tom Tyker’s Cloud Atlas, which features six interlocking stories, has received many positive reviews and awards since its release in 2012. Surprising the author of the source material, David Mitchell, who never imagined anyone could pull it off.

"My only thought was 'What a shame this could never be a film. It has a Russian doll structure. God knows how the book gets away with it but it does, but you can't ask a viewer of a film to begin a film six times, the sixth time being an hour and a half in. They'd all walk out,” Mitchell told The Guardian in 2013.

The film manages to fix the problem that Mitchell outlines by changing the structure of the film. A decision that rotten tomatoes approved film critic, CJ Sheu believes managed to actually improve on the novel.

“Regardless of medium, I think it works better because it follows the traditional narrative arc of setup problem resolution. It uses cross cutting to collapse all six stories into one, whereas the novel makes you repeat the first half of the narrative arc six times, then the second half six times,” Sheu said.

Sheu, who is a critic at Critics At Large, says that an adaptation doesn’t have to stay loyal to its source material, and that it doesn’t have a duty to. He believes the directors should use the material as a vessel to say what they want to say.

“The point isn't loyalty or lack thereof but whether the filmmaker has the freedom to say what they want. Some source materials fit the filmmaker's concerns so well that they needn't be changed,” said Sheu.

Some examples that Sheu gave for the film reflecting the Wachowskis’ directing style included the production design, the visuals and the use of a happy ending.

“It's got the great use of visuals and the bonkers production design aspect of the yellowface and … the script changed the ending of some of the stories from failure to success,” said Sheu.

However, Sheu also highlighted how the source material was negatively impacted by the Wachowskis’ style and idiosyncrasies.

Sheu said he felt the main weaknesses of the film were “the yellowface and something that's true of all Wachowski films, the lack of subtlety.”

Even Mitchell was impressed with the Wachowskis and Tykers take on his novel, despite them tinkering with it a little to make it fit on the big screen.

“When asked whether I mind the changes made during the adaptation of Cloud Atlas, my response is similar: The filmmakers speak fluent film language, and they've done what works,” Mitchell told the Wall Street Journal in 2012.

You can read the review of Cloud Atlas here.