Across the Universe 2007 Review

It's also clearly doomed to box office failure since it used 33 Beatles songs to propel its narrative forward.   Purist Beatle fans won't like the way some of the songs have been toyed with and re-imagined.   Others will not catch many of reference points the movie pays homage to.

Since the tone of the movie is somewhat corny and theatrical, serious moments will be seen by some as to earnest and others will be seen as trying too hard.   The film lacks any cynicism or sarcasm about itself or its time period and so to like it, you've got to embrace it and trust it won't completely let you down.

It all begins when a young man on a beach looking out at the horizon croons "Is there anybody going to listen to my story..."  the opening lines to the Beatles song  "GIRL" .    

Taymor and screenwriters  Doc Clement and Ian LaFrenais  create a collage of 60s images, mining numerous pop culture ‘happenings'  and 33 Beatles songs to tell two stories at the same time.  One is alove story involving Jude, the dreamer who works in the Liverpool shipyards and decides to try to find his birth father in America (and then falls in love) and the other generational story which is a magical mystery tour of the 1960s mostly focusing on anti-war radicalism and touching on the civil rights struggle.   

Jim Sturgess who plays Jude is a composite character  who sings somewhere in between Lennon and McCartney.  He has a demeanor closer to Paul than John, though he is a talented struggling artist (John).

None of this is subtle... but were most Beatle songs subtle?   There are moments that feel a bit rushed,  there's too much dialogue in the first part of the film, and in a couple of scenes it feels like we are caught in a very schmaltzy, corny  romantic comedy-drama.     Some of the throw-away lines make puns or allude to Beatle songs.   I saw this as a homage to Richard Lester's work with the Beatles in Hard Days Night and HELP!   

I was reminded at times of  the movies HAIR, TOMMY and JESUS CHRIST SUPERSTAR.  But director Taymor has a much better eye for stunning visuals and knows how to edit sequences together far better then the directors of the previous films do.    Some of the visuals and some of the visual transitions are breathtaking.  

But to enjoy it, you have to embrace the film and be on its side.  If you are laughing at it, because you have decided it is too corny or it wears its heart on its sleeve, you will tune out and drop out of this movie within 30 minutes and consider some later inspired sequence too little, too late.

I have to give Taymor kudos for making this project happen.  Part of me hates her passionately for I had visions of somehow doing a movie where numerous Beatles songs are cobbled together and create a movie.   I probably would have tried to approach the material in a pretty strict chronological order , which wisely was not what Taymor does. 

I also have to give everyone high praise because at least three times during the movie, I felt like I was listening to the lyrics of Beatles songs and hearing them for the first time.      I know just about every song the Beatles wrote by heart, so that's a pretty remarkable accomplishment.

Forgive the movie it's stunt casting moments, it's gotta be done for marketing reasons and I think Taymor makes it all work anyway.

BONO is so over-exposed, you might roll your eyes and dismiss the brief clip you see of him in the trailer.  Get over the knee-jerk hate already, huh?    He shows up for a few minutes as Dr. Roberts traveling in Magic ‘Further' Bus style to see guru Dr. Geary (aka Timothy Leary). He evokes Ken Kesey and Jack Keroauk and does a nice job with his  ‘I am the Walrus'  sequence.  But it is still a stunt casting moment of course.

Eddie Izzard's campy burlesque  ‘For the Benefit of Mr. Kite' sequence is energetic and visually exciting-even though I thought immediately of  the Herod sequence from Jesus Chris Superstar.  He's obviously having a blast and its during this sequence that Taymor is positively drunk employing her over-sized puppets and Yellow Submarine updated visual razzle dazzle.    You won't forget it, I promise you that.

The inspired "Happiness is a Warm Gun' sequence featuring a Salma Hayek cameo worked well even though I thought about Ken Russell's TOMMY.

The Joe Cocker scene completely won me over.  I wasn't expecting it and it was inspired.   Look fast.. the cab driver may be another uncredited cameo  (you decide).

Across the Universe has a plot and characters that are more defined than you might think.   This isn't the case of  caricatures posing in between musical numbers.  There's perhaps too much dialogue and most likely more  drama than you are expecting in the first hour of the movie.  It's not particularly original in terms of plot but without a few valleys you wouldn't have peaks.

 Jude tracks down his father who works as a janitor at Princeton.  He also meets Max (Joe Anderson) a prank-playing rebellious student.   He gets invited to Thanksgiving dinner (which Jude from Liverpool has never experienced).  He falls in love, almost at first sight, with Max's sister, Lucy.    Jude and Max remain great friends and they get an apartment in the Village, renting a room from an earth-mother type  Sadie (Dana Fuchs who played Janis Joplin in an off Broadway play).  Saide  is supposed to remind you a lot of Janis Joplin and that works well enough.  Eventually a black guitar player named Jo Jo (played by Martin Luther McCoy) arrives from Detroit after his much younger brother is killed during the Detroit riots (and yes he will remind a bit of Jimi Hendrix).   And then there's Prudence  (played by T.V. Carpio).   Her voice on a couple of songs is superb, but her character is a conceit that tries to cover too many bases and is a mis-fire. Sadie (and Jo-Jo) eventually performs an exuberant  Why Don't we Do it the Road, not to mention Helter Skelter.   And with Max, Lucy and Jude they make up our Bohemian group of characters through which we experience many Beatle songs.

   Jude becomes a more moody artist, Lucy gets very involved with a activist group, and everyone takes a wild ride on a bus and experiences LSD.     Max  get drafted into the army and we get one of the film's best most inventive sequences to the tune of  I WANT YOU. 

The highs of the movie's most energetic and visually inventive sequences  like an inspired set piece around Strawberry Fields Forever,  and a ‘smart' use of  Revolution, come crashing down towards the end when the love affair is in turmoil, and we get a few more dialogue heavy scenes, but the film ends on just the right note for me.

The movie doesn't criticize itself or its characters.  You won't find bitter cynical comments about the 60s, or any balance to the portrayal of the counter-culture lifestyles.     It's told completely from the perspective of the 6 characters,  Jude, Lucy, Max,  Sadie, Jo-Jo  and Prudence.  This forces you to either dismiss the movie or embrace its tone and aesthetic.  It might take it's love story a bit more seriously than you would like, but it could not have succeeded any other way.  It might treat a few songs too literally in a few cases and it might re-invent meanings for others that have nothing to do with how and why they were created-but someone needs to do that with Beatles songs don't they?  

If you decide you can embrace a very theatrical musical movie that uses 33 Beatle songs in unsubtle but still inventive ways to tell a love story set in the 1960s-I think you'll fall in love with Across the Universe.

However, if you resent being part of a love-fest embracing Beatles music pop culture and 60s activism-you will really have a tough time with this one.

For Beatles fans-you'll either fall in love with it or despise it.   The purist is me certainly has problems anytime Beatle songs are taken out of context and manipulated, however, at times I thought the songs were fresh and new again.

You can decide to fold your arms and make the movie try to impress you.  You'll find a lot to nit-pick and complain about and it's tone will probably bug you.  You might even decide to tear it apart and laugh at it, rather then let inside of you.    I decided to try and get on Taymor's wave-length and enjoy the movie.  Approach it without cynicism.

The visuals, music, ideas and exuberant energy intoxicated me.  It will do the same to you if you decide you want to like it. 

Kudos to director of photography, Bruno Delbonnel; editor Françoise Bonnot; music score by Elliot Goldenthal,  production designer, Mark Friedberg; and choreography  by Daniel Ezralow (there are far too many wonderful moments of choreography to point many of them out).

 "Across the Universe" is rated PG-13  There's sexual situations, artistic nudity, drug use, very mild violence, and some strong language.