Across the Universe (2007)

I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Crappy film

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

Strong acting helps the film overcome an uncertain premise and create characters that hold our attention absolutely.

I watched it 2 years ago. My friend Scott told me it was great. I always trust his presentation. That why I seen it. It's by American director Julie Taymor. All the actors are great, but I liked Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess the best. Across the universe is a fictional love story set in the 1960s amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest. It's a romantic story and the film paired many songs by The Beatles that defined the time. I thought it was an interesting and exciting film, so try to watch it if you want.

When this movie starts out, it presents a few promises.There is the promise of an interesting main plot. The promise of a few very interesting subplots. And of course, the overall promise that what you'll essentially see is a solid film with music mixed in at key points in the film for visual and plot effect.Those promises are well-kept until about a quarter of the way into the film. We get to know the main character and he develops. We follow a few supporting characters, and get to know them. And of course, the great music of the Beatles is used at very precise and fun times to carry the movie forward brilliantly.Then the whole thing collapses, as a movie, in my opinion. After a quarter of the movie passes, you are then presented with song after song after song after song after song after song, with barely any story or dialogue in between. That wouldn't be too bad of course if the songs truly pushed the plot forward along with what was on screen, but it doesn't. The visuals become more for entertainment and to serve artistic purposes than to carry forward anything that was previously established. At some point you realize that the plot and the overall story of this film takes a *complete* backseat to the Director's desire to make a series of visually stunning music videos for the Beatles songs. And the whole thing eventually feels tedious.But WHY does it feel tedious? The visuals and what's on screen are well executed. The music, of course, is great, and the 1960s vibe is fun.Well, it's tedious because you're essentially lied to. If the film started out completely honestly and established outright that this would be a front-to-back celebration of some great music with story as secondary, that would be fine. But that wasn't done. What happened is that you were drawn into a story to the point where you do indeed give the Director your time and feel commitment to the story being told. Your bring your half to the table because of the promises mentioned above, and quite frankly the film doesn't hold up its end of the bargain.Overall, this would have been much more enjoyable if the film was simply HONEST with it's own identity from the first scene. If it was, it would have been a hit out of the park.

There are and will always be musical diehards who adamantly oppose these types of musical tributes. Who steadfastly believe in maintaining the integrity and artistry of the original Beatles. Those people are missing out on something quite wonderful (and if they listened to Joe Cocker's rendition of With a Little Help from My Friends they would be quite surprised). Across the Universe is a scrambled story, at times valuing its music ahead of its characters or its narrative, and sometimes suffering from the Glee syndrome. That is the mistake of overstuffing the screen-time with as many relevant titles as possible, or in some cases, not exactly valuing the meaning of the song. Both commit the same error with Blackbird, and there are others that seem unnecessary in ATU and hastily speed up the story; Something and Across the Universe come to mind, and Sturgess and Carpio's character names seem there for that sole purpose. But for every one of these there are three others that seem to perfectly encapsulate what our characters are thinking, and what the period is trying to force onto them. There are a few twists on the Beatles classics. Across the backdrop of towering rusty mills, a football team and cheerleader frolic on a turf that is so perfectly torched yellow it must have been Delbonnel's work in post production. Prudence sings I Want To Hold Your Hand in a wistful way, and the object of affection's gender is flipped, and it becomes tragic. Hold Me Tight switches between two aesthetics - the brightly lit and synchronised dancing of a prom, and the grungy underground den of a dance club in Liverpool. Evan Rachel Wood's version manages to capture that young love and one last night feeling much better than the original could. Julie Taymor brings along her expertise as director of the stage musical The Lion King and ATU doesn't hold back an ounce of its theatricality. I've often referred to this film as an assortment of beautiful music videos, and the costuming, production design and eye-poppingly colourful cinematography from Delbonnel certainly speak for themselves. Bono's I Am the Walrus is run through a psychedelic rainbow filter, there are hauntingly slow underwater ballets, strawberries leak red juice and crimson splashes are superimposed with the Vietnam bombings while Anderson and Sturgess harmonise tightly from afar. There are some audacious stylistic set choices. As Jojo (modelled after Jimi Hendrix) arrives in New York, the city lights turns cold and blue-green, beggars and prostitutes serenade him from the street, neon signs buzz from all directions, and hundreds of corporate suits dance rhythmically while he is left out. The group stumble upon a bizarre travelling circus whose costumes and colours pop out in the countryside background. And Max returning injured from war is subject to a dizzyingly absurd dream sequence where the hospital beds churn like a Round Up amusement ride and identical seductive nurses provide the only relief: painkillers. The narrative is one of love first and foremost, and the revolution of the 60s, the counter-culture, the protest of the Vietnam War, all secondary objectives. Taymor prefers to present this via songs rather than exposition or scenes, which is sometimes rushed due to the amount of them (34 separate musical numbers!) Yes it is a little cheesy, the hippie protest not really taken seriously, and the love story one we've seen before, but it is easy to get swept up in the journey. There are some fantastic little touches that scream Beatles love letter rather than a period piece. One is the upbeat timing on Max's frenzied Jude cry that Paul made iconic, which matches perfectly with the moment he sees his dear old friend again in America. Another is the end of Jeff Beck's A Day in the Life, where we frantically zoom in on Jude's discovery of what he thinks is Lucy's death, and the famous long note which took four pianos explodes with the newspapers scraps to reveal him sitting along on the beach, in mourning. It culminates in a roof-top rendition of the ultimate make love not war song of the 60s. Sure, it's a global message but it's much more important for the lovestruck pair than it is for the political and contextual backdrop. Flaws can be found if you are persistent. The story lines are rather shallow; Max comes and goes and never really ends up anywhere after serving, relationship dynamics see-saw in 213 minutes, it's a little sappy at times...there are other problems that could be pointed out with closer analysis. But Across the Universe is stunning to look at, and easy to sing along with.

"Across the Universe" is like a bad Beatles cover band. It means well, tries hard, and plays the band's catalog with love in its heart - but it's a waste of time. At the end of the show, you find yourself wishing that you had stayed home and listened to the real thing. Like most cover versions of Beatles songs, "Across the Universe" is awful, a poorly written and badly sung music video masquerading as a movie. The story is shallow, the characters paper-thin, and the musical numbers ridiculously over-the-top. That it drags some of the greatest pop music of the 20th century down with it just adds insult to injury.The plot, if you must: Lucy, Jude, Maxwell, Sadie and Prudence (get it?) sing Beatles songs as they move along with the change and upheaval of the 1960s, with each song representing a key event of the times. They drop acid while singing "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". They tune in, turn on and drop out to "Revolution". They get drafted to "Happiness is a Warm Gun". Finally, as if there was any doubt, they realize that "All You Need is Love".I wasn't there for the 1960s, so I can't say what those times were like for people coming of age in that moment of history. No one involved in this movie seems to know, either. The themes of the time - the anti-war movement, changing sexual mores, drug experimentation - are given such shallow treatment that they have no real resonance for the audience. It's as if the protagonists are standing outside of the world they live in, so apart from the scene that they could have walked in from another movie. They know the words, but not the music.Wow, do they not know the music. The cast members are all technically proficient singers, but they put no feeling, no soul, into their renditions of Beatles songs. Jim Sturgess and Evan Rachel Wood, who play star-crossed lovers Jude and Lucy, sing "Strawberry Fields Forever" during a breakup scene, but with none of the loneliness that John Lennon put into every syllable. Joe Anderson, who plays Maxwell, sings "With a Little Help From My Friends" during a party sequence, but his rendition has none of the childlike joy that Ringo Starr brought to the original. Sturgess' "Happiness is a Warm Gun", sung while he unconvincingly shoots heroin, is so bad it's offensive.Writer/director Julie Taymor makes each song into a ridiculously big set piece. The "Strawberry Fields" number has giant, papier-mache strawberries. "Happiness is a Warm Gun" is accompanied by Salma Hayek floating in a syringe. I don't think I can describe the "Why Don't We Do It In the Road?" number in a family-friendly blog.Taymor is clearly a devoted Beatles fan, and works really hard to make her audience love these songs. Thing is, the band doesn't need her help. The Beatles are part of our cultural DNA; they don't need to be introduced to new generations, because they have been transcending generations for 50 years. Like a bad cover band, this movie has no reason to exist, and just makes us pine for the real thing.