How unfortunate! That it took me so long to watch this film. I was mostly interested because of the directors, but the 3 hour length held me back. “Cloud Atlas” is a brilliant film though and certainly worth the three hours.
I have not read that much about the film, but the way I see it there are 7 different stories which are cut up and presented through eachother. Stories in the past, the future and combinations between the two. Many actors have 7 parts and there are several indications that the different stories are different lives of the same people. What all (or most) stories have incommon, is that the nonconformistic people are some sort of rebels. The different stories allowed the directors to go from pompous (Matrix-like) scifi to maritime drama, Medieval adventure and harsch humour. The stories in themselves are all interesting and contain some sort of mystery. It takes way up to the end before many things fall into place (but I guess watching the film again will do so even more), since the actors are not always too recognisable and also before there are cross-references between the stories. Overall there is this great Wachowski atmosphere.