Such a beautiful movie with great story and great Beatles songs

Rating: 8/10 (3 May 2010)

Set in the 60's it follows the life of many young people during that time. The main characters are a young woman named Lucy and a young man named Jude. Lucy is an American upper class girl who's boyfriend is away in the war. Her brother is away at college and she lives the normal life of a teenage girl. Jude is a poor boy from Liverpool who is the bastard child of an American soldier. He thinks because his father is at a college that perhaps he is a professor so he goes there to meet him, only to find he is a janitor. He meets up with Max and becomes friends and Max is Lucy's brother. Max drops out of college and he and Jude head to New York where they find a room with Sadie (a hot singer). Soon a guitar player moves in by the name of Jo Jo and after Lucy's man is killed in the war she decides to go crash there as well. Prudence comes in through the bathroom window and makes the house complete.
Lucy and Jude fall in love, Sadie and Jojo seek fame and Prudence leaves to find happiness soon after Max is drafted. Jude does art to make money and Lucy gets highly involved in protesting the war. Eventually all the things collide and love and friendship and the beauty of song keep them all together and makes everything all right...All you need is love right? - This movie uses 30 wonderful Beatles songs and references many others as well as other bands from Creedence to Janis to Jimi.
What a great movie. I am not always big on musicals but when they get them right its wonderful. Here with such a great band as The Beatles you can't go wrong. This movie was so on point with the way things were in the 60's and how the war made so many people start getting involved with ways of protesting and standing up for our rights. The subtle messages like with Max and Lucy giving up the great wealthy life to go live a not so comfy one in New york, yet New York was the place to be.
The direction is absolutely perfect and so many of the sets and colors and locations and all is breathtaking, it is one of the most beautifully shot movies I have ever watched. The actors did an amazing job, Jim Sturgess even looked like a Beatle. Wood did pretty good, although I am not a fan of her work. I liked them adding Joe Cocker in the movie but could have done with out Bono, he is just annoying to me. Salma Hayek is also an actress that disgusts me. Most of the actors did wonderful though.
This movie was really good, but it was missing some great Beatles songs. The movie had an ongoing story up until about an hour into it then it kind of went astray. I hated the Benefit of Mr. Kite part and from there on the movie suffered. It got really slow and started adding many parts that had no relevance but were used simply as art. When art goes with the story it's beautiful, but art for arts sake in a film is boring.
The first time I watched this film I gave it 9 stars, but here on my 3rd viewing I had to face the facts that the last half of this movie wasn't as fun as the first. I gave it 8 out of 10 stars, cause it is a great film that I highly praise.