Across the Universe - A Short Review

Across the Universe - The story is a timeless one:  boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl back.  The music is also timeless, including some of the best tunes ever written by the Beatles.   The director, Julie Taymor, is innovative and has a great eye for the visual (see her previous work on The Lion King on Broadway and Titus, her superb adaptation of Shakespeare’s Titus Andronicus).  The lead actress Evan Rachel Wood is one of the best of her generation and has been receiving critical acclaim since her work on the TV series Once and Again at the young age of 12 (she is now 20).  Further, there are cameos by Bono, Eddie Izzard and Joe Cocker. The storyline, while not literally taking us across the universe, does span three continents.  There is love, war, death, madness, betrayal, and (Spoiler Alert) a happy ending.

What more could one want in movie?  How about this . . . something more than a two plus hour music video, a storyline that actually has some surprises in it, and a little less conversation that references many of the Beatles’ songs that actually aren’t performed in whole or in part during the film.  Sean Burns, of the Philadelphia Weekly points out one of the primary problems with this film better than I can.  He writes:  "What’s most revealing is that despite more than 130 minutes of singing, hand-wringing and pontificating, none of the so -called characters are forced to make any actual decisions or come even remotely close to sacrificing anything before the whole thing just kind of works itself out. (“All You Need Is Love,” they keep telling me.)"

In a way, this movie reminds me of Elizabethtown, another terribly flawed movie that I really, really wanted to love.  In fact, I do like Elizabethtown, but I really want to love it.  Alas, I can’t.  Stilted performances and stereotypical cliches of life in the South make it impossible to love.  But there was the music, the great music culled to perfection by Cameron Crowe to match every moment of the film to a tee.  And the same is true for Across the Universe.

In his review of the film, James Berardinelli writes:

One could never argue that Across the Universe isn’t ambitious. However, like many ambitious movies, this one fails spectacularly. Glenn Kenny of Premiere magazine called it "the perfect disaster" and, while I think that’s a little harsh, I understand where he’s coming from. Elements of Across the Universe are shockingly awful and the film lasts at least 30 minutes past the bearable stage. But if you like the Beatles and the idea of hearing about 20 covers of their work fills you with a perverse joy, this may be the movie for you.

I couldn’t agree with him more, although I wish, I really wish, I could disagree.

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To see a few clips from the movie, go here.  Below you will find a seldom seen second trailer from the film.