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Across the Universe - Review
Length: 133 min Rated: PG-13 Distributor: Sony Release Date: 2007-09-12 Starring: Evan Rachel Wood, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson, Dana Fuchs, Martin Luther McCoy, T.V. Carpio
Directed by Julie Taymor
Produced by Suzanne Todd, Jennifer Todd, Matthew Gross
Written by Dick Clement, Ian La Fresnais
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The film starts off strong, introducing our characters in their various locations as they awake to the potential revolution of the changing decade. Jude (Jim Sturgess) is a Liverpudlian bidding goodbye to his sweetheart (with “All My Loving”) as he makes his way to America, while Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), a high school girl in the suburbs, sings “It Won’t Be Long” before she and her Vietnam-bound boyfriend are together (you can probably guess he doesn’t make it back). Jude quickly befriends Lucy’s brother Max (Joe Anderson), a Princeton student who informs Jude that he gets by “With A Little Help From My Friends.” Elsewhere, Prudence (T.V. Carpio) is an Ohio cheerleader crooning to a fellow pom-pom bearer “I Wanna Hold Your Hand,” before she hits the road and heads for New York. Max, Jude, Lucy and others eventually do the same, moving into the communal Greenwich Village apartment run by Sadie (Dana Fuchs), a sexy rock-and-roller with a Janis Joplin growl. They arrive to the tune of “Come Together” (led by Detroit escapee JoJo, played by Martin Luther McCoy), listen to Sadie and JoJo’s band singing “Why Don’t We Do It In The Road?”, and encourage a depressed Prudence to come out to see the day with, well, you probably know by now. Jude and Lucy fall in love, as do Sadie and JoJo, while Max must face his call to duty in Vietnam. The music in the first half of the film fits seamlessly with the story, whether it’s a fantastical dance number in a bowling alley to “I Saw a Face” or Lucy gently musing on her potential romance with Jude by singing “If I Fell.” The most spectacular of these early numbers is “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”, a terrifying stylized scene of military indoctrination in which recruits are stripped down and examined in tiny boxes, before being sent to the jungle to haul the Statue of Liberty (the “she” of the title). At the end the song morphs into a seductive dance between Sadie and JoJo, a brilliant balance of both the song’s darkness and inherent romance. About halfway through the film, even as the musical numbers get weirder and more visually splendid, the story starts to lose its way. The whole gang joins up with the mysterious Dr. Robert (Bono, doing a creditable American accent), who drives them off in his psychedelic bus to meet Mr. Kite (Eddie Izzard), a ringmaster from hell who dances with ten blue puppet men. Though it may be a gorgeous—and crazy— interpretation of Lennon and McCartney’s lyrics, what the hell does it have to do with the rest of the film? Not a thing. The story kind of lurches along after that, as the heady excitement of bohemia gives way to the gritty protests and Vietnam footage that defined the rest of the decade, and our lovers must go through the expected ups and downs of romance that has been seen many times before. It’s a shame, too, that the stories are so rote, because the visuals and emotions that Taymor has evoked often feel entirely new. The performers all sing their hearts out, and act great too, and in many moments truly connect us to their characters. With their stories so predetermined, though (who would guess that Sadie gets cocky with fame, or Lucy comes to see the arrogance of her anti-war heroes?), it’s hard to get too worked up about what happens in the meantime. Quite frankly, though, the stories aren’t what matters. Across the Universe could have been a better film, but it’s pretty stunning as it is, and opens up new vistas of the imagination in the way that youth and rock and roll themselves have been known to do. Much more than pure baby boomer nostalgia, Across the Universe tickles a nerve for anyone willing to let aesthetics and genuine emotion sweep them away.
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June 4th, 2008 at 15:34
As I hippie child of the 60's, I was intrigued to see what they would do with the Beatles to 'click' with today's culture. I watched it with my youngest daughter, age 25, to get her input as well.
The lone figure singing acapella on the beach as the opening was breathtakingly haunting and beautiful, and immediately swept us into it's story (told in retrospect). A wonderful treatment of introducing each of the young characters tied them into their montage of related songs, from English dockworker to the Asian-American survivor of domestic abuse.
The call of the New York flat renters to their love-struck lesbian friend weeping in the closet to "Come out to play" was humorously poignant as well as deliciously tongue-in-cheek.
The stunning symbolism of soldiers dressed as slaves bearing a gargantuan Statue of Liberty on their back while trodding down miniaturized jungles under their feet while singing "She ain't heavy" made me literally gasp. It needed no explanation; even my daughter, who had never understood why the Vietnam War had been so controversial, was instantly impacted with an epiphany about it that no documentaries and discussions had ever accomplished.
The sinister metallic soldier production factory and the frighteningly blank-faced synchronized drill sergeants had the same dramatic "Oh!" impact. It was incredible.
Scene after scene melded seamlessly with both popular and lesser known songs. I felt they had captured the essence of the Beatles, and had decided it was now my newest favorite movie. But then it came crashing downhill and left me deeply disappointed.
Somewhere in the middle, it suddenly looked as though the movie had switched screenwriters. It went from skillful symbolic and artistic allusions to the sort of tiresome docu-dramas that are portrayed on history channels. Intermixed with that was an overlong and tedious love triangle spanning the rest of the length of the film that just seemed sadly dated. My daughter turned to me and wondered where the magic had gone. It was as if two totally different movies had been spliced together smack in the middle of the showing.
It began as a true Magical Mystery Tour and ended buried an ignominious death much as Eleanor Rigby suffered. Pity.