Cloud Atlas is as enigmatic as it is beautiful, much like the haunting musical motif The Cloud Atlas Sextet that forms the backbone of the score by Australian composer Johnny Klimek. All the elements (from the music to the running time to each self-contained story having its own visual approach) add up to one thing, which was the philosophy of the whole movie.

With the whole American continent south of the Texas/Mexico border decisively out of the news (unless it’s to demonise one of the left-leaning republics as quasi-communists), we can be forgiven in Australia for a case of collective ignorance about conditions in South and Latin America.

He’s not the funniest, most famous or best-looking guy in comedy, but like so few Hollywood actors who can step effortlessly between the arthouse and the multiplex, Shearer inhabits separate worlds.