Today’s post begins with a fractal called Hippie Cross. I picked it because it was one of the better images I could find to illustrate my review of Across The Universe.-
The Beatles have had a whole range of things happen to their music since they broke up back in 1970--from being the “inspiration” of any number of “tribute bands” to being used to sell sneakers. The Cirque Du Soleil has mounted Love to packed houses and much critical praise in Las Vegas. But they have met with little success on screen: way back in 1978 Robert Stigwood disastrously brought Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band to the big screen. It starred Peter Frampton (who was a Farrah-haired pretty boy back then) and the BeeGees (just before their career imploded). It was a big budget, cocaine-fueled candy-colored catastrophe that stunk up the box office so badly that it took another 29 years before somebody got the idea to try again with Across The Universe.
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Both Sgt. Pepper and Across The Universe are essentially filmed “Jukebox Musicals". Both use Beatles songs to advance their stories and in both cases the spoken bits are little more than "set ups" for the next song. Both even have their characters drawn from Beatles lyrics. Sgt. Pepper was an over-the-top “Rock and Roll” fantasy but Across The Universe tries to tell a more “realistic” story.
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Across The Universe tells the story of “Jude” (played by newcomer Jim Sturgess), a young man from Liverpool who comes to Princeston to find the father he never knew. There he meets bad boy Max Carrigan (Joe Anderson) and Max’s pretty, sweet and innocent sister Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). When Max drops out of school he and Jude head off to Greenwich Village and Lucy follows after the death of her boyfriend as a soldier in Viet Nam. Once there they experience love, drugs, rock-and-roll fame, war, radicalism and the bad side of all of them. They encounter people clearly intended to portray Janice Joplin, Jimi Hendrix and Timothy Leary.
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The acting here is minimal at best (but, then again, the actors aren’t given that much to work with) but at least the cast can sing! (at least to some extent thanks to excellent sound engineers). Bono (playing “Dr. Robert“) gives a rock star rendition of I Am The Walrus which is the highlight of the movie. Eddie Izzard does a decidedly awful job as “Mr. Kite” (he doesn‘t even try to sing). Oldsters like me will enjoy the brief appearance by Joe Cocker (but you‘ll have to go to see the movie to find out where he pops up).
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The real star of the movie is director Julie Taymor (best known for her translation of Disney’s The Lion King from an animated feature to a live Broadway spectacular). She uses costumes, lighting, dance, puppets and camera effects to bring her visions to life. Some songs work better than others: many work spectacularly well (like I Am The Walrus and I Want You So Bad) while some songs get an interesting, if not always successful, re-working (I Want To Hold Your Hand is turned into a wistful ballad for example). A few songs simply don’t work (a literal interpretation of Strawberry Fields Forever that is frankly creepy is especially noteworthy).
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As a movie Across The Universe doesn’t work a lot of the time but the various “music videos” are often interesting to watch. I felt like I was “cruising” through the 60s--dipping my toe into various events without really being able to experience the events. The movie is best suited for fans of “art” films and those who truly devoted to Beatles music.
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FINAL GRADE: C-
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