Beatles Songs Get The Silver Screen Treatment

Rating: Null/10 (14 February 2008)

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE is a musical for those who love the Beatles and/or the Vietnam War era anti-war protests. Specifically, it's for those who love the Beatles though.
Paying homage to almost all the Beatles' songs of this era, Across The Universe paints a set of narratives across the silver screen against the lyrical backdrops of such greats as 'All My Loving', 'Let It Be', 'Come Together', and 'Hey Jude' to name a very few. All of the character names are also either pulled directly from Beatles tunes (Jude, Maxwell, Lucy, Sadie, etc.) or from the times (JoJo as Jimi Hendrix, etc.).
Although very cleverly put together as a whole, the first forty minutes of the film are scattered and much of the music forced into the plot in order for it to make sense. The constrained script plugs along, trying to take wing but more often than not, falling back to Earth and trying again.
About an hour into the film, however, Across The Universe finds its wings and gets aloft. After Max (Joe Anderson) gets inducted into the military, there's an incredible sequence in which we see a platoon of soldiers carrying the statue of liberty across the jungles of Vietnam. Never have I seen something so contrasting yet beautifully explored with regards to how the U.S. felt as boys were sent to fight in Southeast Asia ('Liberating' the Vietnamese by trampling down their country). The song 'I Want You' is interspersed here with the lyrics "she's so...heavy!" cut from it. Amazingly done.
The story is really about love and tolerance during a time of incredible bloodshed and governmental turmoil. Lead actors Jim Sturgess (as Jude) and Evan Rachel Wood (as Lucy) do a fine job of making us care about this conflicted couple and how in love they eventually become thanks to their similarities but also their differences. Jude wants to stay out of the war and focus on his artwork, while Lucy is forced into the Peace Movement when her brother (Max) gets drafted and shipped out. Lucy finds that peace at any cost is too high a price, while Jude's eyes are awakened when he pulls his head out of the proverbial sands.
The drug culture is explored in-depth as our would-be lovers trek across the U.S. in a psychedelic bus after drinking some "purple punch." The visuals are wild, and the colors even wilder as their "experience" drops them into the hands of Mr. Kite (Eddie Izzard, MY SUPER EX-GIRLFRIEND) who sings, not surprisingly, 'Being For The Benefit Of Mr. Kite.'" His blue buddies are indicative of the LSD experience for those who wanted to "turn on, tune in, and drop out." The ending is well rendered if a bit predictable. Love cannot be denied amongst these terrible times, so Jude and Lucy must find a way to make theirs work.
If it weren't for the terrible beginning, this film would've gotten an easy five star rating. But it faltered so much in those first forty minutes that I'd be lying to myself if I said the middle and end made up for all of it. It didn't. But Across The Universe is still a musical worth watching. Just get past the beginning and you'll be swept up in the nostalgic music and characters.