Tom Hanks’ prowess as an actor is legendary. The actor has played different roles in different movies across genres in his decade-spanning career. Some roles are, however, far beyond complexity and very hard to go through the entire movie, even for veterans like Hanks.
Although those roles are not a piece of cake, they sure give the actor to work on his potential moves to pull off the characters. One such role, the actor himself confessed, was Lana Wachowski, Tom Tykwer, Lilly Wachowski’s $112 million sci-fi movie Cloud Atlas.
Tom Hanks’ Most Complex Role
It’s not just Tom Hanks, Cloud Atlas is a multi-layered sci-fi and one of the most complex movies of all time. Based on David Mitchell’s novel of the same name, the movie follows different timelines across generations. The Hanks and Halle Berry starrer movie, however, did not perform well at the box office. Perhaps, due to its complex plot.
But for Hanks, Cloud Atlas will remain the most complex movie the actor ever appeared in. In the narrative spanning one hundred years, Hanks played six different characters. But Hanks loved being in the movie and he confessed that it helped shape his later career. “Quite frankly, when I took on Cloud Atlas, that reshaped everything as far as going into a movie that I’d ever made,” Hanks said.
“There was only one way to do that and that was completely give yourself over to all the decisions that all these other people made and only care about what happened on the inside of the costume and inside of the make-up.”
Despite Hanks’ love for the movie, many dubbed the film as one of the worst movies of that year. But the actor has placed it in his top three list, and of course, the movie is a thrill ride.
Tom Hanks Said Cloud Atlas is ‘the Most Complicated Jigsaw Puzzle’
Hanks has been always keen on explaining his take on the movie as he adores the essence of the narrative of the classic novel. Undoubtedly, the novel is also a difficult read for many and the idea of adaptation of it on screen was inherently unfathomable at first. Cloud Altas is “the most complicated jigsaw puzzle of a film ever,” Hanks once said.
“The only way I think any of us could [make the movie] was just to go in and quietly close our eyes and work and have the characters and go to it. That means a shedding of all that self-consciousness, whatever was still left of it. And it was liberating. It was completely freeing because it was a union with the script and a union with the characters and that’s all that mattered.”
Duration fatigue in a complex narrative is another responsible factor for the failure of the movie but upon its premiere at the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, the movie received a 10-minute standing ovation. Beyond the narrative, there are several aspects to appreciate the movie. Many critics hailed the soundtrack of the movie as it perfectly infused with the narrative that spanned across generations. Also, the cinematography and the visuals have created a lasting impact that was more than astonishing.
Source: The Digital Fix.
