Across the Universe
Review by Carolyn Arends | posted 9/21/2007
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Across the Universe
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MPAA rating: PG-13
(for some drug content, nudity, sexuality, violence and language)
Genre: Drama, Musical, Romance
Theater release:
September 21, 2007
by Columbia Pictures
Directed by: Julie Taymor
Runtime: 2 hours 11 minutes
Cast: Evan Rachel Wood (Lucy), Jim Sturgess (Jude), Joe Anderson (Max), Dana Fuchs (Sadie), Martin Luther McCoy (JoJo)
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It's nineteen sixty-something. Jude (a charismatic Jim Sturgess) is a blue-collar dockworker cum artist from Liverpool who's sailed to America to find the ex-GI father who doesn't know he exists. Max (Joe Anderson) is a good-natured rascal who ditches his pampered life at Princeton for the chaotic energy of New York City. Jude and Max become the best of friends; Max even seems to approve when his luminous sister Lucy (Rachel Evan Wood) meets Jude and the two fall hopelessly in love.
Jude, Max and Lucy join a merry band of tie-dyed musicians, artists, and vagabonds in a Greenwich Village apartment full of smoke and beads and heady idealism. If it weren't for the Vietnam War, everything would be perfect. But when Max is drafted and Lucy becomes embroiled in anti-war activism, complications ensue.
Evan Rachel Wood as Lucy
If the names Jude, Max(well) and Lucy (as well as those of supporting characters like Sadie, JoJo and Prudence) seem more than a little familiar, welcome to the "spot the Beatles reference" game that makes Across the Universe a good-natured (if sometimes enthusiastic to the point of corniness) romp. The film is inspired and propelled by 33 Beatles tunes, 31 of which are unabashedly sung—character to character, character to camera, or character dreamily off to the distance—throughout the film. (The other two songs are used instrumentally.) In fact, more of the dialogue is sung than is spoken.
Uber-creative director Julie Taymor (best known for her wildly successful adaptation of The Lion King for Broadway, as well as for critically acclaimed, visually inventive films like Frida and Titus) has cooked up just enough story to move us from song to song. Plot and character development are merely necessary devices to get us to the good stuff—a dazzling array of eye and ear candy that will delight those willing to forgo normal cinematic meat and potatoes for something a little sweeter.
Jim Sturgess as Jude, perhaps contemplating strawberry fields
Across the Universe moves without apology (and often without explanation) back and forth between realistic settings and surrealistic tableaus. Much of the inventive film editing (and effects like Warhol-esque solarization color treatments) is genuinely eye-popping. Dance-laden production numbers involving theatrical masks and life-size puppets are, depending on your tolerance for that sort of thing, mortifying or brilliant (or maybe both). Some of the most fun is had courtesy of several over-the-top cameos, including Bono as the counter-culture guru Dr. Roberts (singing "I Am The Walrus"), Joe Cocker as a panhandler, a pimp, and a street performer (all of whom sing a wicked version of "Come Together"), and Eddie Izzard as the "Mr. Kite," who leads the movie's most psychedelic scenes.
The music is used in quite literal ways (Prudence really does come in through the bathroom window, and Jude has a bowl of actual strawberries when he sings "Strawberry Fields Forever") to mostly good effect. The singing itself is outstanding. Reportedly, the majority of the vocals were captured live on set (rather than pre-recorded in the studio and lip-synced), and the approach gives the performances an exceptional realism. The music's producers (including the always impeccable T Bone Burnett, as well as Taymor's partner Elliot Goldenthal) wisely keep the arrangements generally low-key, with a few twists here and there ("I Want To Hold Your Hand" is rendered a tender ballad, for example). As familiar as the Beatles' melodies are, they still astonish with their beauty, making the almost-a cappella moments (Lucy's "If I Fell", Jude's "Girl") spine-tingling.
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