Safe and not as romance novel as I'd feared

Rating: 8/10 (8 February 2010)

So... I'm a man. I'm a manly man. I do like intellectual dramas but mainly I like it when stuff BLOWS UP in films. :)
Thus I put off seeing Across the Universe, because, from the promos, it looked way too girly, plus I was afraid that the film would be overloaded with awkward plot twists designed to fit the music of the Beatles. In other words, bad.
However! Having seen Mamma Mia and enjoyed it, the mishmash of ABBA music turned into a film, I decided to give Across the Universe a shot and enjoyed it quite a bit.
True, there are unfortunate twists, like naming one of the characters Jude, which I thought was a heavyhanded excuse to incorporate the song "Hey Jude". And the film definitely glorifies drug use. However, I think it was ultimately true to the 1960s in a way more important than the plot line. It was true in the experiences of the characters.
Sort of like how M*A*S*H the movie or TV series, about the Korean War, I mean, you would never have all that stuff happening to one group of people. However, if you pick and choose the biggest stories from hundreds of people's Korean War backgrounds and mash them into one storyline, that's what M*A*S*H is.
So, while I found the plot somewhat contrived and unbelievable, with a thin-as-paper lesbian romance, for example, I can believe that each scene by itself says something about the 1960s that matters. There's innocence but there's also war and crime. There's groovy but there's also bummer. The music was often corny in its relation to the plot but - - dang! - everyone loves the Beatles and I did find myself tapping my toes. Plus there's a lot of dancing, as there should be in musicals, to further remind you that the plot line is symbolic and not meant to be taken literally. (In the real literal world, people do not break into synchronized song and dance numbers.)
That being said, every song (I think?) had some kind of plot excuse. I can't think of any song in which the characters weren't really singing. Do you know what I mean? Sometimes a film just totally stops, there's singing, and when the song's over, it's like someone's paused the real film for a musical break and then restarts it. But, for example, in the Sound of Music, when there's singing, the plot rolls along, the characters in the film are actually singing. I like that.
And the film has a great ending.
Such an ending! Thus, I pronounce it safe for you Action Film Guys whose girlfriends really want to rent it. You will survive, I promise. Just don't let her get the Princess Diaries!! :)
I'll give Across the Universe a solid but not classic 8 out of 10.