These thoughts I have seem to pass me by like a cloud

I saw Cloud Atlas earlier today. Roger Ebert's review swayed me. I knew little about the movie, save that it was based on a book, told six separate and possibly interconnected stories that spanned centuries, was highly ambitious, featured Thom Hanks and Halle Berry, and  a lot of people found it to be profoundly confusing. Not a bad foundation as far as I was concerned, but my interest wasn't piqued enough to make an effort to see it in the theater. When I read Ebert's glowing review, I figured the film was worth checking out sooner than later, so off I went to The Somerville Theater with the hope of having my entire being pulverized into psychedelic oblivion. That hope wasn't exactly dashed, but it manifested in a manner far less intense.

I won't provide my own review, but I will say that I enjoyed the film quite a bit and it has stayed with me. Say what you want about Cloud Atlas, but one thing is certain: it is thought provoking. One of Ebert's correspondents, Omer M. Mozaffar, wrote a great piece about it. In it, he opines that the film is about love, among other things.

...  the film's ultimate binding force, binding together the entire galaxy, is true love. But, anyone who knows the Wachowski films, already knows this point. The whole "Matrix" trilogy leads us to this point. As is true in the "Matrix" films, the true love this film seeks is unbound by any constraints. Here, lust also becomes a constraint against love. This movie, however, takes love further. In some of the threads, that true love is a deep love between two equals. In some of the threads, it is the love of a parent and child. In some of the threads, it is the love of the rescued for a rescuer. In some of the threads, that love is loyalty to fellows or humanity.

But, the love of "Cloud Atlas" is not merely something rational, antiseptic and platonic. Rather, it is compulsive. Again, it is a love that someone cannot, not have. In Rumi's language, it is fire that ignites life. It is not mere wind; it is fire. And, anyone who does not have this fire, need not be alive. In the film, anyone who does not have this fire, has probably surrendered his/her humanity to the above-mentioned cages, waiting to be devoured by the conspiratorial system. That love is something that reaches into the most intimate places of your being, and cannot exist without connecting with someone else. That love becomes something produced by the two of you, yet not belonging to either of you. It is a greater work of art than even a masterpiece composition.

 So, the film is ultimately asking if you have ever experienced that true boundless love. I do not think that I knew love until the births of my daughters. Until they arrived, I was essentially an ascetic of sorts, detached from the world. And, they arrived and became my world. And, through them, I was exposed to love in all directions. I think every parent understands this. And, when I follow the story of the two Wachowskis, I find myself thinking that I am witnessing a special, true love between two siblings. In another time and place, a related pair would have split. I wonder, though, how many of us find that fire of love in another person, where physical union becomes a taste in that transcendence.

Of late, my mind has been heavy with the idea of the love Mozzafar describes. I can't say I've known it, though perhaps I've been close, and that has been a source of sadness in my life. One thing Cloud Atlas illustrates, though, is that our lives can change quickly and dramatically and not always for the worse. And that's what I tell myself whenever I feel the pangs of lack. Not sure I want a bunch of mewling, screeching toddlers to remedy that lack, however; a girlfriend/wife and a kick ass dog will suffice. Ok, maybe a kid or two, but they'll have to measure up to the young, Sixth Sense era, Haley Joel Osmont or they'll be summarily deposited on the doorstep of the nearest orphanage. 
 
So go see Cloud Atlas; your soul, if you have one, will be invigorated. It will thank you for the nourishment. With so many remakes and reboots being spewed out of Hollywood with the excess and mess of a bukkake party, it's nice, even cleansing, to see something this ambitious and moving being produced. And, now that I think of it, there are at least three other films I'm interested in seeing in the theater: Argo, Looper, and Flight. A renaissance? That would be pissah!

It's chilly. Turned the heat on for the first time since last winter. We made it to November. Not bad. Probably could have done without tonight, but there's no point in being uncomfortable, which we were starting to feel. So let there be heat!

And let there be coffee. I made some earlier with the french press Spira got me for Christmas last year and I want more. See ya later, gators.