Unbearable Nostalgia

Rating: 9/10 (7 June 2014)

I really enjoyed this movie. It is an unabashed musical packed with more Beatles tunes than I remembered even existed. The singers are brilliant. The boy who plays Jude, Jim Sturgess, is spectacular. He is better than the Beatles. He gives the songs depth, meaning and emotion that they did not have in the bouncy originals. The movie is essentially an opera, with bits of dialogue to tie together the musical numbers into a clever strangely uncontrived story. Each song usually begins with a minute or two a capella, perfectly sung. There are usually about ten people in the background dancing, or doing something or just looking colourful. It is like a non-stop visual torrent washing over your eyes. The choreography is original avoiding repetition.
The movie reminds me of Grease and Peter Fonda's early movie, The Trip. It also reminds of my youth. It is pretty realistic for how surreal it was.
The nostalgia was so thick it made me cry a few times. At one point Sadie did a Janice Joplin impersonation. Ouch!
It is not a particularly light entertainment. It is set against the brutality of the powers that be who brought you the Viet Nam War. The depiction of the violence is mostly surreal. Yet it got under my skin even more that blunt realism would. I have seen so much of that my hide is tough. There was one scene when you watch from a distance as two soldiers deliver notice the beloved son has died and the reaction of the mother and girlfriend. I have never seen that done so powerfully before.
The ending was so predictable and so saccharine I felt let down, quite unlike the rest of the movie, but at least they clipped it short.