Across the
Universe bears all of the qualities that I look for in a
great motion picture: it is consistently innovative, original,
and mesmerizing. Due to some obvious flaws, the film is a far
cry from a masterpiece but, at the same time, it’s more exciting
and stimulating than most masterpieces usually are. With
Across the Universe, director Julie Taymor has made a work
that is entirely her own and, for this, she deserves endless
showers of praise. This is the type of work that does a lot of
good for the medium of film as a whole: as viewers watch it, it
will have them feeling as though they’re experiencing something
magical for the first time. At a point in cinema history when
most positive experiences at The Movies are characterized by
enjoying well-done but entirely ordinary films, the stunningly
original Across the Universe is worthy of my highest
recommendation.
The premise of
the film is simple, but invites a seemingly endless supply of
imagination on the parts of the cast and crew. Using renditions
of the songs of the Beatles as a staple for her story, Taymor
brings to her memories of the anti-Vietnam movement in the late
1960s to life through an intimate circle of characters. As the
film opens, we meet Jude (Jim Sturgess), a young man living in
Liverpool who decides to travel to America to find his long-lost
and unknowing father, a former soldier who experienced a
short-lived romance with Jude’s mother when he was stationed in
England during World War II. Jude disappointingly finds his Old
Man working as a janitor at Princeton University. Somewhat
discouraged his father’s inherent indifference to him, Jude
looks for excitement when he meets wacky and out-of-place
Princeton student Max (Joe Anderson). Max invites Jude to his
home for Thanksgiving dinner, where he breaks the tough news to
his accomplished father that he will be dropping out of the
university. Free at last, Max and Jude head for Greenwich
Village, where they find themselves happily living in a dump of
an apartment with what soon becomes a slew of other
liberated-spirits.
Lucy (Evan
Rachel Wood), Max’s younger sister, soon joins the two rebels in
New York after graduating high-school in the midst of mourning
the death of her boyfriend, who was killed in combat in the
Vietnam War. Lucy is originally indifferent to the psychedelic
atmosphere that she finds herself in but, after a chain of
unexpected events, ends up embracing the setting as a form of
inner-healing. The hippie-movement is all that Lucy has to seek
solace in when she is left shaken when Max, no longer enrolled
in college, is drafted for the War Effort. Almost equally
surprising is the newfound love she develops for Jude, which
evolves into an enduring romance that spans the length of the
remainder of the film.
The plot of the
picture itself is rather conventional, but this only contributes
to its brilliance. Taymor recognizes the fact that all stories
have been told before and, instead of hopelessly trying to make
this basic aspect of Across the Universe more original,
she focuses on creating a visually and thematically dynamic
experience. Although the film is often tonally meandering, its
constantly high level of creativity renders it
always-entertaining.
Only about
thirty minutes of Across the Universe’s two-hour-plus
duration consists of dialogue; the rest is told through Beatles
musical numbers. A few of these sequences miss the mark (“I
Wanna Hold Your Hand", “Let it Be”), but the majority of them
are on right target. Most of the songs are highly involving, and
some of them (“I’ve Just Seen a Face”, “I Want You So Bad”, “I
Am the Walrus”, “Revolution”) are unbelievably powerful. All of
the music is performed wonderfully by the cast, and the precise
choreography and colorful set-design accompanying them are jaw-droppingly
beautiful.
It is rumored
that, after Taymor screened Across the Universe for Sir
Paul McCartney himself and asked him if he liked it, he turned
to her and replied “What’s not to love [about the film]?” That’s
a good way to summate the sheer ecstasy that the movie captures;
despite its occasional choppiness and whatever its flaws, its
lively spirit and eye-popping visuals make it impossible to
berate. There are so many beautiful sequences on display in the
picture that it would be fruitless of me to admiringly single
out each one that I appreciated in this review. Across the
Universe is a work to be experienced; it’s flowing,
inspired, and incessantly absorbing.
-Danny Baldwin,
Bucket Reviews
Review Published
on: 9.22.2007
Screened on:
9.20.2007 at The Landmark in West Los Angeles, CA.
Across the Universe is rated PG-13 and
runs 131 minutes.
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