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Roger Ebert gives the new Tom Hanks movie, Cloud Atlas, four out of four stars.  Heres how he opens his review:

Even as I was watching "Cloud Atlas" the first time, I knew I would need to see it again. Now that I've seen it the second time, I know I'd like to see it a third time — but I no longer believe repeated viewings will solve anything. To borrow Churchill's description of Russia, "it is a riddle, wrapped in a mystery, inside an enigma." It fascinates in the moment. It's getting from one moment to the next that is tricky.

Huh?  I saw Cloud Atlas over the weekend, never having read the book, and enjoyed it, but didn't feel the need for another viewing any time soon--certainly not for a better understanding.

The movie is over two and a half hours, and involves six separate stories set in six separate eras, with the same set of actors in each.  Every story looks back in some way at the previous story.  While this is a little confusing at first, once you get your bearings, it's not hard to follow.  So the movie may be complex, but it's not confusing.

True, there's some new-agey wisdom about how everything is connected, and the film bravely takes a stand against slavery, big oil, human trafficking and murdering children, but that sort of stuff is best ignored on the first and all subsequent viewings. So Roger can go back as many times as he wants, I don't know how much more he'll get out of it.