“Across the Universe” (Sony Pictures)
‘Mama Mia’ Meets ‘Hair’
Just as the hit Broadway musical “Mama Mia” took the songs of Abba and wound them around a storyline, the new film “Across the Universe” takes songs of the Beatles and incorporates them into a tale about life in the turbulent 60’s. There are elements of the play “Hair” in this movie as it looks at a love story involving a young couple against the backdrop of such events as the Vietnam War and the psychedelic revolution.
Jude (Jim Sturgess) is a young man from Liverpool, England who ends up in the States looking for the father he has never known. He finds him at Princeton University where he is a maintenance worker. Jude also meets Max (Joe Anderson), a perennial student who likes to get high with his friends and not do much studying.
Max decides to go home for Thanksgiving and takes Jude along. That is where Jude meets Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), Max’s younger sister. When Max and Jude move to New York City, Lucy comes up to visit them for the summer. She and Jude fall in love and begin to experience life. They explore a variety of scenes including dropping acid and working against the Vietnam War.
All along the way there are the songs of the Beatles and the characters who live therein. In addition to such Beatles’ favored names as Lucy and Jude, there are also characters named Sadie and Prudence. Sadie (Dana Fuchs) is a rock star in the Janis Joplin mode and she has a guitarist (Martin Luther McCoy) in her band who embodies Jimi Hendrix. Prudence (T V Carpio) is a hanger on of sorts who has a crush on Sadie.
The movie starts out strong with Sturgess’ voice wrapping itself perfectly around a variety of Beatles’ tunes. Wood also has an amazingly clear voice and her vocals are just as professional as those of any other singer in the film. The scenes showing the start of Jude and Lucy’s relationship are simple, pure and totally enjoyable.
It is in the middle part of the film that things gets bogged down. This is when the heady acid trips come into play and the psychedelic hallucinatory world is shown. Bono appears as a musician in this part of the story and he is interesting to watch even if this whole segment is not. In the final third the movie regains the audience’s interest and builds up to a grand finale.
The Beatles songbook chosen for the film is not always the one containing the most familiar numbers but they all are appealing to the ear and in most cases they advance the plot. The actors are all versatile enough to support the drama of the story and also enhance the musical numbers.
The movie is rated PG-13 for profanity, nudity and drug usage.
“Across the Universe” is a musical love story that works on many levels. Its close similarity to the plot of “Hair” is a strike against its uniqueness, but its fantastic staging thanks to director Julie Taymor makes it a film that should be seen. Everybody loves the music of the Beatles and that in and of itself should make everyone like “Across the Universe.”
I scored “Across the Universe” a global 6 out of 10.
