Across the Universe

Posted by admin on Oct 8, 2007 in Volume 14 Issue 1 | 0 comments

Choose a handful of stock characters—a love struck couple, a college dropout, a free spirited rock singer, an unrequited lesbian—throw them against a tumultuous 1960s background, have them all sing Beatles songs, and you get Across the Universe, a musical from the imagination of director Julie Taymor (Frida, Broadway’s The Lion King). Jim Sturgess stars as Jude, a dockworker from England who travels across the ocean to find his long-lost father. This encounter is short and leaves Jude jobless and reluctant to return to England, so he befriends the emphatic dropout Max (Joe Anderson) before swiftly falling in love with his new friend’s sister, Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). The trio moves to New York and become a starving artist, an army recruit, and a political activist, respectively. Along the way they meet acid guru, Dr. Roberts (Bono, yes Bono) and ringleader Mr. Kite (Eddie Izzard), who act as guides through a 20-minute psychedelic sequence that could easily have been dropped for the betterment of the plot.

Across the Universe will draw obvious comparisons to its only contemporary in the trippy-pop-song-musical genre, Moulin Rouge. But where Moulin succeeded in its orchestrated medleys and emotional depth, Across is a far second on both accounts. The Beatles covers, while stretching beyond basic guitars, drums and bass, lack much of the heart that their originals possessed. This is true for much of the film. While Taymor’s visual imagination is unmatched, ultimately her characters and her story are forgettable.