Cloud Atlas 2012 Hot Exclusive -

Upon its release, critics were deeply divided. Some hailed it as a visionary masterpiece, while others found its scope and prosthetic makeup choices (used for race and gender bending) distracting or problematic.

V. Performing Heat: Actors and Makeup Cloud Atlas’s notorious casting choices—actors in multiple roles across eras—also reflect thermal range. Actors must display different "temperatures" of character: the simmer of quiet resilience, the white heat of rage, the comfortable warmth of domesticity. Makeup, costume, and hair sculpt these thermal identities: the glazed sweat of a ship’s deckhand, the pallid coolness of a composer, the neon-coated sheen of a corporate enforcer. cloud atlas 2012 hot

One of the primary innovations of Cloud Atlas was its use of a repertory cast. The principal actors (Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugh Grant, Jim Broadbent, Hugo Weaving, Jim Sturgess, and Chinese actress Zhou Xun) each take on multiple roles, playing different genders and races across the stories. Heavy makeup and prosthetics were used to transform them, and for audiences, a huge part of the film's appeal was spotting who was who (and, for critics, which transformations were successful and which were not). Upon its release, critics were deeply divided