Lennon me, when you're not strong.

Rating: 9/10 (23 September 2014)

Across the Universe is a sublime, beautiful story loosely based on Beatles songs and set against the harsh reality of the Vietnam War. The combination of timeless music with Oscar-nominated costume design yields a thematically coherent work of art that spreads its message of love and understanding to great success.
The story centers around a Liverpudlian named Jude (Jim Sturgess) who joins the merchant marines and then jumps ship once he gets to the United States, ostensibly to look up his American father. He meets a wild young man named Max (Joe Anderson) who's wreaking havoc on the Harvard campus, and Max's sister Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), a straight-arrow babe in the woods. Jude and his friends have fun and adventures and suffer the various tragedies of life from the early 1960s through to the early 1970s, pretty much aping how John Lennon spent his time during that period.
Almost all of the characters in this story have some sort of Beatles connection. Jude refers to the song "Hey Jude," which itself referred to Lennon's son Julian. Lucy refers to "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds," and Max refers to "Maxwell's Silver Hammer." But that ain't all. Jude and Max eventually get an apartment together, and their landlady is named Sadie (Dana Fuchs), after "Sexy Sadie); the character herself is an homage to Janis Joplin. Sadie's musician boyfriend is Jo-Jo, from "Get Back," and he's an homage to Jimi Hendrix. There's a friend named Pru ("Dear Prudence"), too. But here's what's really neat. The songs used in the movie aren't shoehorned in there to fit with the characters' names, and vice versa. Director Julia Taymor allows the viewer to become immersed in the world of Jude and Lucy without being distracted by what's really a constant stream of Beatle references.
This is not a small achievement, either. From a Cavern Club show to a rooftop performance, there are scores of people, places, and events relating the Lennon and his bandmates, and it doesn't stop there. At one point Jude and the gang get on a bus that's on its way to see Dr. Timothy Leary, just like Ken Kesey's famous transcontinental trek some fifty years ago. There's a musical number devoted to the song "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite," and if ever a song really shouted out for a musical number, that's it. Eddie Izzard, of all people, plays the titular Kite, and he's surrounded by Blue Meanies. Trust me, if you're not high when you watch that scene, you'll feel like you are anyway.
But at the center of the madness is the beautiful love story of Jude and Lucy, one a struggling artist who is passionate about pacifism and one who supports more proactive protest measures. As one might expect in any time period, their love becomes strained and even vanishes for a while. After all, this isn't a musical rooted in fantasy. Kids are sent off to war in Taymor's vision, and they don't always come back.
Across the Universe seems to capture the spirit, the angst, and the hope that embodied the period. It's a bit long, over two hours, but if you do make it to the end you should find the final number to be a real heart stopper. Honest, winning performances from everyone really seal the deal.