Opening This Week: Cloud Atlas, Fun Size, Chasing Mavericks

After a slow week at the box office, things pick up with a prestige film with star power on both sides of the camera, a family-friendly surfing story, and a less family-friendly film from Nickelodeon.

Tom Hanks and Halle Berry star in “Cloud Atlas,” based on the “unfilmable” book by David Mitchell that takes the reader back and forth through six different stories from the past, present, and future, mixed up with philosophy, history, science, and puzzles.  This is a dream project for the Wachowskis, the sibling duo behind the “Matrix” films, and Tom Twyker of “Run Lola Run.”  From an 18th century seagoing vessel to a 1930’s musician, a 1970’s reporter, a present-day publisher, and a future  society with clones, the story is ambitious, demanding, and provocative.

“Fun Size” comes from Nickelodeon, but parents should be cautious as it a PG-13-rated story of a high school senior who gets stuck babysitting her brother on Halloween when she wants to go to a party with her friends.  She loses her brother trick-or-treating and has some wild adventures with her friends trying to find him before their mother finds out.

Making Mavericks: The Memoir of a Surfing Legend is a memoir by Richard “Frosty” Hesson about mentoring a young surfer named Jay Moriarity who wanted to learn to surf the gigantic waves known as “mavericks” and his commitment to living life with “joy and purpose.”  “Chasing Mavericks” is the story of the friendship between the two surfers, directed by Curtis Hanson (“LA Confidential,” “Wonder Boys”).