“Cloud Atlas” is being hailed as the most audacious film of the year.

In its nearly three hours of running time, the film travels through about five centuries of chronological time — though it doesn’t do so chronologically. It moves back and forth, from the Pacific Islands in the 19th century, to England in the early 20th, to America in the late 20th, back to England in the 21st, and Asia and America in a distant future.