An original musical film, Across The Universe is a fictional love story set in the 1960s amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest, the struggle for free speech and civil rights, mind exploration and rock and roll. At once gritty, whimsical and highly theatrical, the story moves from high schools and universities in Massachusetts, Princeton and Ohio to the Lower East Side of Manhattan, the Detroit riots, the killing fields of Vietnam and the dockyards of Liverpool. A combination of live action and painted and three-dimensional animation, the film is paired with many Beatles songs that defined the time.


I still don’t know what to make of Across the Universe. We’ve had images, teasers, trailers, posters, and even the above plot synopsis, but what the hell is it about again? When I read that synopsis, all I come away with is the mental image of an aging hippy doing way too many drugs. I have no idea what that means. I do know almost everything released from the movie looks damn pretty, and using Beatles music is a nice plus.

Actually, it looks a little like Moulin Rouge, if it were set in Vietnam and skewed a little bit more on the side of realism. This is either going to be one of the most groundbreaking films of the year or one of 2007’s biggest disasters.

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