A beautiful but empty bubble

Rating: 5/10 (10 April 2009)

After my bad experience going to see SGT PEPPER back in the 80s, I vowed never to go to another film based on Beatle songs. After 25 years, I renounced my vow and watched ACROSS THE UNIVERSE. It is a far better film than SGT PEPPER but ultimately also a disappointment.
Julie Taymor is a tremendously creative director, and there are some wild visuals in this movie. Outstanding sequences include Eddie Izzard's animated MR KITE, the draft board dance sequence, and the on-the-street dance with commuters and briefcases. There is no lack of visual stimulation here.
The problem is: when you stuff a movie with a huge number of songs, there's not much room left for plot. So we end up with stock characters and boy-meets-girl clichés sandwiched in-between stunning musical numbers. I guess that's true for many movie musicals, but I guess I still expect more. And of course, we have the whole 60s counterculture boiled down to its skeletal remains (Hippies! Soldiers! Rock and Roll!)
So: high marks to the director and art staff for keeping my eyeballs entertained, but a big snore for the writers who couldn't do any better than this trite plot that seems like the literary equivalent of a paint-by-number kit.