Across the Universe

So you might find it funny that the only reason I'm revisiting this film is because I'm actually kind of pumped for another Beatles musical coming out this year called Yesterday that actually seems to have a cohesive plot and direction. If you haven't seen the trailer, it's actually probably my most anticipated film of the month because of how creative and unique the premise is.

Because of that anticipation, I started listening to some Beatles songs and stumbled back upon the movie musical from 2007, Across the Universe.

There are a couple of characters in Across the Universe the real focus is on the three in the picture to the right (I'll get into that huge issue with the film in a little bit).

Jim Sturgess plays a 20 something from Liverpool named Jude who comes to America to meet his father and sticks around honestly for the drugs and women, Evan Rachel Wood plays a high school student named Lucy, about to graduate who's serious boyfriend is about to be deployed to Vietnam, and Joe Anderson plays her brother Max, a Princeton drop out who himself gets deployed not long after Wood's boyfriend is killed in Vietnam.

The movie is a jukebox musical that utilizes the song of the Beatles to tell a love story between Jude and Lucy with the backdrop of the 60's. It grazes a lot of topics like the hippie movement, drugs and alcohol use, music, and VERY sparingly the blight of African Americans during the Civil Rights movement, but the movie mainly puts its focus on the Vietnam War and the effect it has on these characters.

But please don't be fooled to believe this movie has a lot to say, it really doesn't. This movie mainly serves as a Beatles nostalgia music video  and an opportunity to show off some, at the time young talent like Jim Sturgess and Evan Rachel Wood (because they're clearly both using their singing voice real often in stuff they're in like... Westworld...).

As alluded to, the movie has a lot of things going all at once that really don't fit together as well as random characters. The story is mainly centered on these two love birds, both of which are white, neither of which can be drafted, who just get high and complain about Vietnam. (That's not to diminish the struggles of those waiting for their loved ones to come home, that is a struggle, but that really wasn't the focus of the musical.) More often then not I'm sitting there looking at these privileged kids and the old man in me is yelling, GET OFF MY LAWN!

The funny thing is that there are subplots with other characters that make you think there's a whole other movie happening that would be much more interesting. Dana Fuchs plays the main character's land lady who is a pretty good singer. She and Martin Luther McCoy's character JoJo have this on and off relationship where she's trying to go Solo or something and he's a good guitar player, it's not totally clear because the main story keeps diverting back to these two every once in a while and they're at a different point, they're together, then they're fighting and doing drugs, then she's randomly singing Helter Skelter, then they're back together with no explanation. Now put aside the band part, JoJo just seems like a more interesting character because you literally meet him when he's attending a funeral for his younger brother who is killed during a Civil Rights riot, that story sounds far more interesting than these boring lovers.

Even the random Cheerleader Prudence (played by TV Carpio) seems to have a more interesting story. She's a lesbian who runs away from home, hangs out with these stoners in New York for a time, falls in love with Dana Fuchs character, then leaves randomly and joins the Circus.

Is it the most interesting story ever? No, but its a lot more interesting than Sturgess and Wood's just meandering around complaining about each other.

Unfortunately, the Beatles have a lot of songs that are about love and so it made sense for this to be a love story. And largely, this movie was never really going for a serious commentary about the time period.

It was 2007, it was probably some kind of anniversary, and Jim Sturgess and Evan Rachel Wood were a couple of hot stars at the time to create a movie musical, which were also having a little bit of a comeback.

And while I have been shitting on the poor story, I will say these two are not horrible actors. They're kind of shitty people in the film and Jude isn't a very good artist and Lucy reminds me of annoying chicks I went to college with, but beyond that, the two give a halfway decent performance where I sort of believed they fell in love.

Overall the movie suffers from two problems, it doesn't have much of a cohesive plot to begin with, and it has a bunch of plots that could have been more interesting go absolutely no where.

I don't really know where I should put this but I do think its funny that one of the main foils of our hero Jim Sturgess is Lucy's activist boss (played by Logan Marshall-Green) and he blows up in a homemade bomb accident, and I'm not sure if it's supposed to be played up for laughs or not, but I thought it was funny. Just kind of shows how thing movie was a little more focused on the music then the actual story.

And in this department, the movie actually does a pretty good job. The music, the visuals, and the choreography are really actually stellar. If you're a Beatles fan, you're going to love some of the renditions of a good swath of the discography in this movie.

There is probably something to be said about how the musical numbers don't diegetically fit into the progression of the story, but the truth is that there isn't much story for the music to produce any kind of diegesis anyway so you can probably enjoy this movie more as modern music videos of classic Beatles songs and probably have yourself a good time.

They even throw in really odd cameos for literally no reason like Bono, Eddie Izzard, and Selma Heyak. Like if they had thrown in Paul McCartney or Ringo Star I would have understood but as it stands it just seems odd that Bono shows up and never appears again.

Unfortunately, like a lot of musicals, the second act REALLY slows down and goes a few songs too many for me to say that this could just be a fun visual film. Most musicals start pretty upbeat in the beginning but when the conflict is at its highest, there are a lot of sad songs and they don't really balance out and Across the Universe is a prime example of that.

The thing I remembered most from my first viewing was just how much the last hour drags compared to the first one because you just get this mash up really depressing Beatles songs. They're good songs like Black Bird, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Helter Skelter, and Strawberry Fields Forever, but put together it just drags out the last hour and it feels more like the director didn't know where to put them so she just kind of mashed them together in the last 30 minutes, sometimes even literally because Helter Skelter and Across the Universe get put together in a weird rendition where the climax of the movie, I think was happening.

But then it keeps going!

There are songs in this movie, especially near the end that go straight into one after the other with no explanation whatsoever.

Jukebox musicals, especially ones that use exclusively one designated artists, can be difficult. It often seems like they're contractually obligated to throw in songs and try and write around them when it should be the other way around. But to be fair, Across the Universe was doing an okay job of it for the majority of the film. But then they just start throwing in songs because it would be sacrilegious to have a Beatles musical without Black Bird My Guitar Gently Weeps.

A movie that started off actually pretty strong in the first hour or so really struggles to tie all the nonsensical plot lines together that at the end, those characters that they sort of paid attention to like JoJo and Dana Fuch's character just are back together, Joe Anderson is back from the war with little more than a, "I guess I'm a little messed up from Vietnam" throw away line, and I'm just so happy when they start singing "All You Need Is Love" because it's pretty obvious that that's the song that they would end on.

Is Across the Universe really as bad as I've been making it out to be? Yes, Yes it is.

BUT... I do see this movie being a fun time for people who are big Beatles fans because the reality is that it is a long music video that clocks in over 2 hours with a lot of in jokes, trippy visuals, and a lot of well done performing of really good Beatles songs.

The best thing to come out of this movie is by far the sound track because every one does do a good job in their singing, musical performances, and just overall aesthetic that reminds us of the 60's and how weird that decade was (I'm assuming... I'm not that old).

I think it might be better to check out the soundtrack more than the movie because the movie is a bit of a mess. The story is almost nonexistent, the characters suck, they miss out on a lot of opportunities in this period piece, and the story is a slave to the music, not the other way around. Across the Universe is more of an audio journey through some reimagined Beatles songs and if that's your cup of tea, by all means, check it out. Otherwise, just listen to the soundtrack and skip this 2 hour slog.

But what did you think of Across the Universe? Are you excited for Yesterday which I think is going to be a much better Beatles Musical (at least I hope). Comment and Discuss below! You can also send me your thoughts on Twitter @MovieSymposium as well as requests for films I should review in the future. If you follow me on Twitter, you can get updates on future movie news and reviews coming out of this blog.

Thanks for reading!