and sinister. Two moments flare into life, both family rows, showing what might have been and how Catherine Tate, potentially a fine straight actress, is wasted. After Titus , the most Fellinian Shakespearean film that Fellini never made, Julie Taymor has worked increasingly in theatre, notably in opera. The best moments of Across the Universe have the defiantly camp exuberance of opera, not to mention the irony intrinsic to operatic sensibility (possibly explaining some critical derision). It falls between Beatles-song anthology and romantic 1960s saga, its method somewhere between The Singing Detective , complete with a quintuple vision of Salma Hayek in nurse's uniform, and the Fab Four's Magical Mystery Tour . Psychedelia, Alan Aldridge -- visual references abound, along with star vignettes from Bono to Eddie Izzard. The film's too long but when it works, as in a slickly choreographed military induction scene with Taymor's trademark giant puppets and carnival heads, it's exhilarating. Two eminently likable offerings feature cheerful battles against the odds. The eponymous Kenny is slightly hurt at the occasional reaction to his job -- supervising Splashdown, a portaloo business that provides relief at sporting events, pop festivals and other occasions at which humanity gathers, imbibes and leaves its mark -- and struggles to maintain a relationship with the small son of his broken marriage. He keeps cheerful in this Australian mockumentary, a huge success beneath the Southern Cross, very funny as long as it sticks to Kenny's job, less so when it rambles unwisely into a