Sunday, September 30, 2007

Movie Review: Across the Universe

By Todd Maternowski

Across the Universe

"Across the Universe" is a love story set against the backdrop of the 1960s amid the turbulent years of anti-war protest, mind exploration and rock 'n roll, moving from the dockyards of Liverpool to the creative psychedelia of Greenwich Village, from the riot-torn streets of Detroit to the killing fields of Vietnam. The star-crossed lovers, Jude and Lucy, along with a small group of friends and musicians, are swept up into the emerging anti-war and counterculture movements, with "Dr. Robert" and "Mr. Kite" as their guides. Tumultuous forces outside their control ultimately tear the young lovers apart, forcing Jude and Lucy--against all odds--to find their own way back to each other.

Source: Cinema Source

• Showtimes and more on Across the Universe

Across the Universe is a story of 1960s counterculture as told via 33 carefully selected Beatles cover songs, which director Julie Taymor (Frida,Titus) has artfully strung together to create a flawed but extraordinarily enjoyable film. The film is first and foremost, an imagination-first, plot-second musical, ostensibly about the love story between protagonists Jude (played somewhat stiffly by newcomer Jim Sturgess) and Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood) --but ultimately the film uses these mostly-cardboard characters to try explain --via the medium of pop music-- a chaotic time in American history.

"She's not a girl / Who misses much"

Taymor uses her Broadway pedigree to full effect in Across the Universe, creating deep and lush visuals that dominate every single scene, from the truly trippy LSD scenes to even the most standard sets. There is no one scene anywhere in the movie in which Taymor did not pore over every conceivable detail, and because of this the film is an optical feast and a tremendous enjoyment to watch. Many recent movies have used incredible visual effects to stunning effect (The Fountain, Pan's Labyrinth, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), and ATU fits in better with that cadre of films than the stereotypical Hollywood special effects-driven blockbuster like The Mummy Returns or Spiderman 3.

"I am He as You are He as You are Me / And We are all together"

The acting in the film is all over the proverbial map, with some excellent performances mixed in with some that were so-so. The lead character, Jude, played by Liverpuddlian superhunk Jim Sturgess -- seems mainly a cipher throughout most of the film, relying more on his good looks and soft-voiced singing talent to carry the film. Then again, if you're heading to a musical about pop music expecting Laurence Olivier, you might want to ratchet those expectations down a notch. Co-star Evan Rachel Wood is servicable in the role of Lucy, and Taymor gets the best performance of the film out of British actor Joe Anderson as the ne'er-do-well scoundrel Max. Still, for the most part a great deal of the acting is wooden and blank, like T.V. Carpio's role as Prudence. There are some terrific cameos as well, with Bono as Dr. Robert singing “I am the Walrus,” a pimped-and-hoboed-out Joe Cocker singing “Come Together” and a circus ringmaster Eddie Izzard performing "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite."

The Universe would like to see you try, fleshbag

"Take these broken wings and learn to fly"

Taymor has an epic task in front of her: take the insanely divergent themes of the 1960s --war, hippies, drugs, race, sex-- touch on all of them in a non-superficial way via a love story, and tie it all together using themes from Beatles songs. While she doesn't always hit the mark, the results are nevertheless impressive. The film ranges from one extreme to another; starting in a shipyard in Liverpool, then a suburban setting in idyllic 60s America, bohemian Greenwich Village to acid-trippy LSD bus, grungy New York diner to nightmarish military recruiting hall --and while not all the changes are fluid, each scene is treated with a directorial reverence the audience can appreciate. This is probably made easier by the fact that the ten-year history of the Beatles ranged from playful bubblegum in the beginning to socio-political commentary, hallucinogenic experimentation and giving pop culture a darker edge. The two-hour length of the movie tries to capture that, and comes close without succumbing either to rosy-colored former-hippie nostalgia or hard-edged black-and-white radical revolutionary insufferability.

You say you want a revolution / Well, hey, I don't know

With plenty of eye-candy in the cast and softened lyric-heavy versions of the songs, it's easy to categorize Across the Universe as chick-flick... if it weren't for the brutal scenes of war and protest that are peppered throughout the film. Sprinkled amidst the silly love songs are scenes of police shooting black rioters in Detroit, funerals for children, and American troops battling invisible enemies in the jungles of Vietnam. It's a cinch to see why the movie has been so hated by some critics: the unwavering anti-war message is one of the strongest put on any recent mainstream film, and the message is just as crystal-clear today as it was in 1967. Still, the movie does not jump all-in to the revolutionary mystique of the 60s, and ends up showing it in a pretty unflattering light.

"I feel good in a special way / I'm in love and it's a sunny day"

Ultimately, like any pop song, this is a love story: and while the love story may be cliched, its treatment is not - ATU is far more Eternal Sunshine than Wedding Planner. Structuring the movie around the songs certainly helps: as any Beatles fan will tell you, the songs are robust enough to weather a poor cover -- thankfully, they rarely have to in this film. Most of the songs were good, if a little slow: slowing the tempo to a crawl is not necessarily the same as infusing a song with "soul." The story is also inconsistent at times, seeming like a string of music videos with plot as filler --at other times, songs are noticeably missing for long stretches of time. Most likely, those who have powerful emotional connections to specific Beatles songs will probably also find that the movie explores their emotional states quite well.

"I took a ride I didn't know what I would find there / Another road where maybe I could see some other kind of mind there"

Whether you find the movie cute or irritating will largely depend on your own individual temperament. The movie is one of those belt-out-songs-in-public musicals that require a total suspension of disbelief; scenes involving all of New York and Liverpool singing "Hey Jude" in an attempt to get Jude and Lucy together are the norm here. Then again, it is a movie, what's wrong with a little joyful fantasy? If you never liked the Beatles, don't waste your time with this movie -- however, for the vast majority of us who live in the English-speaking world, there is much to love in this edgy, experimental romp through pop culture.

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• New on DVD: Across the Universe, The Brave One and The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford (Feb. 5, 2008)
• Academy releases Oscar noms (Jan. 22, 2008)
• Film notes: Golden Globe nominations and AFI Dallas millionaire benefactress (Dec. 15, 2007)

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