'Cloud Atlas'? You'd need an atlas, many movie critics say It's easy to see why David Mitchell's sprawling 2004 novel "Cloud Atlas" has been called unfilmable: The book tells six interlocking stories that unfold over five centures, hop between genres, and explore big ideas like the nature of freedom and the interconnectedness of the human experience. As it turns out, "Cloud Atlas" wasn't unfilmable after all - though it did require three directors (Andy and Lana Wachoswki and Tom Tykwer), a star-studded cast (led by Tom Hanks and Halle Berry) and nearly three hours of screen time. The resulting movie is receiving mixed reviews, with many critics commending its ambition - get used to that word and its variants - but also finding the storytelling uneven. The Times' Kenneth Turan writes that Mitchell's novel "has been turned into a film with muddled, frustrating results," though not for lack of effort. Part of the problem is that the book's "main pleasures" - its "exceptional use of language" and "delicate, highly unusual structure" - aren't well suited for the screen. Turan also finds the conceit of having the actors play multiple roles as a way to link the six stories to be "a distracting gimmick." Ultimately, Turan writes, "what sinks 'Cloud Atlas' is not the largeness of its ambitions but the lack of skill it displays in terms of writing, directing and acting." The San Francisco Chronicle's Mick LaSalle calls "Cloud Atlas" the latest example of a new subgenre of movies "attempting to convey the entire experience of life in a single movie" (see also: "Babel," "The Tree of Life"). Fortunately, LaSalle says, "Cloud Atlas" is not only "the biggest effort yet in this new vein" but also "more successful than most." It's "ambitious and challenging," and the six interwoven stories, three of which were directed by Tykwer and three by the Wachowskis, are for the most part compelling, except for one set in the distant future that is "always a drag to come back to." USA Today's Claudia Puig also invokes the A-word: "Certainly the year's most ambitious work," she writes, "'Cloud Atlas' is all dazzling technique and contradictions." The film delivers "a consistently tangled experience - captivating and frustrating, occasionally enjoyable to piece together, and sometimes a slog." While the cinematography, editing, production design and makeup get high marks, Puig says the frequent intercutting between stories "serves more to confuse than illuminate" and makes it difficult to invest in the characters. "For a film whose theme is 'everything is connected,'" Puig concludes, "there's a sharp disconnect between the transporting visuals and the lack of emotional payoff." The Wall Street Journal's Joe Morgenstern agrees. He writes, "[The film's] disconnections are so frequent and befuddling that we're left with little more than fascinating fragments, an intermittent sense of something cosmic going on, and a guessing game about which actors are which as they reappear beneath slatherings of latex makeup to illustrate the theme of reincarnation." The Chicago Sun-Times' Roger Ebert offers a glowing review, raving "Oh, what a film this is! And what a demonstration of the magical, dreamlike qualities of the cinema. And what an opportunity for the actors. And what a leap by the directors, who free themselves from the chains of narrative continuity. For the record, he also calls "Cloud Atlas" "one of the most ambitious films ever made." But the New York Times' A.O. Scott finds "Cloud Atlas" to be "an unruly grab bag of styles, effects and emotions held together, just barely, by a combination of outlandish daring and humble sincerity." Still, he muses," "maybe the achievement of 'Cloud Atlas' should be quantified rather than judged in more conventional, qualitative ways. This is by no means the best movie of the year, but it may be the most movie you can get for the price of a single ticket. When you put it that way, six stories, 500 years and 172 minutes in one movie isn't just ambitious - it's also a bargain. Photos: 'Cloud Atlas' Tom Hanks: Six singular sensations in 'Cloud Atlas' 'Cloud Atlas' filmmakers follow a new road map to adaptation