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Across the Universe
We recommend the gorgeous trailer. Looks like a theatrical combination of live action and animated hocus pocus - all set to a Beatles soundtrack.
Starring Jim Sturgess, Evan Rachel Wood, Joe Anderson, Dana Fuchs
Directed by Julie Taymor ('Frida')
Written by Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais
Festivals & Awards Golden Globe nominations 2008, Click for full list of nominations
2hr 13mins | Rated (M) | violence, offensive language, nudity | Origin: USA | Official Site »
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The Talk
16 votes / No comments
Flicks review
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3
The notion that music can provide the soundtrack to your life is given a literal outing through the Beatle’s back catalogue in the Romance/Musical Across the Universe. Jude (Jim Sturges) is a dockworker eager to escape the monotony of his native Liverpool and his travels take him to America, where he first meets Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood) and falls into a love that reflects the tumultuous decade of the 1960s. This story and the events that unfold within it are in essence an excuse for the cast to restage Beatles classics in an extravaganza of song and dance numbers with a surreal touch.
Director Julie Taymor has earned fame and acclaim for her stage spectacles as well as her work on film, evident in the string of beguiling wide screen images she offers up to the viewer. The combination of camera work, production design and costume give the film a fantastical stage for the musical renditions to play out on when it hits its high notes. These instances are notable for the presence of star cameos from the likes of Bono, Joe Cocker and Eddie Izzard, who bring personality to what often veer into by-the-numbers performances. When the main cast are carrying the tune it can come across as sickly sweet and the emphasis put on certain lyrics to advance the plot gets grating when it becomes a narrative crutch over the two hour plus running time.
It is obvious that the songs have been selected first and a tenuous story has been shoehorned into place to fit them later. If you’re a fan of musicals you’ll probably find a lot to like in the Across the Universe soundtrack. Beatles fans on the other hand might see the cover versions as sacrilege. It’s one of the most visually interesting films to hit the screens in a long time, but it would have worked better as a greatest hits album, with only the cream of the musical numbers remaining and its clunky failures left on the cutting room floor. Still, I normally hate musicals, but I didn’t hate this.
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The people's reviews
15 reviews
Press Reviews
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Chicago Sun-Times [Roger Ebert]
4
Here is a bold, beautiful, visually enchanting musical where we walk INTO the theater humming the songs.
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Christchurch Press [Margaret Agnew]
3
1/2 The plot is flimsy and predictable but the film certainly succeeds in reminding the audience how fabulous The Beatles' music was and is _ even when it's sung by somebody else.
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Empire Magazine [UK]
4
It’s haphazard, at times demented, entirely overreaching, and has experienced a tumultuous conflict over the final cut. Nothing about this film should work. Here’s the good news: it’s wonderful.
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New York Times
Somewhere around its midpoint, Across the Universe captured my heart, and I realized that falling in love with a movie is like falling in love with another person. Imperfections, however glaring, become endearing quirks once you’ve tumbled.
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The Hollywood Reporter
Julie Taymor's visual gifts are very much in evidence in Across the Universe, an ambitious, only partly successful attempt to reinvigorate the musical genre.
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Variety [USA]
All you need is love -- for the Beatles, for psychedelic visuals, for ideas about being young in the ‘60s -- to fully enjoy Across the Universe.
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Village Voice [USA]
Across the Universe, which filters the cultural revolt through a blizzard of early Beatles songs, ends up both reductive and smugly condescending to a presumptively know-nothing audience.
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