A 2-hour long Gap commercial

Rating: 4/10 (9 February 2009)

"Across the Universe" is a visual collage of beautiful white people, dressed in fashionable clothing, dancing to modern renditions of classic tunes with no discernible plot. There are bright colors and cool visual effects. There are token non-whites, including an extremely funky black musician, and an attractive woman of mixed Asian ethnicity. There are ivy-league students decorated in plaid, playing golf on rooftops. In other words, it is a 2-hour long Gap commercial.
The movie's plot starts out as a number of intertwined love stories. At some point, the plot completely disappears in order for certain musical numbers and cool visuals to happen. The plot then turns to how the Vietnam War affects the various characters. At the end, it becomes a love story again. Overall, the plot lacks clarity as it meanders forward in time with a random pacing. Has a day passed or a decade? It's quite hard to tell, even when the film attempts to imbue historical scenes into the story.
When the movie does try to say anything, it fails horribly. Where the unrelentingly literal interpretation of Beatles songs makes whimsical scenes like "I Want To Hold Your Hand" merely cloying and unsatisfying, it makes the more serious scenes like "I Want You" and "Strawberry Fields" ring laughably hollow. I am certain I was not the only person to laugh out loud when the soldiers were carrying the Statue of Liberty while singing, "She's So Heavy". I prefer my symbolism seasoned in a marinade of depth, with a dash of subtlety. While the war-related scenes were at times viscerally reminiscent of Pink Floyd's "The Wall", there was no underlying tension to drive them home.
The acting was decent overall, particularly considering the script they had to work with had no real character development. The actors played their one-dimensional roles as well as could be.
The music was, on the whole, remarkably well sung and played. The more than 30 Beatles covers had a fresh sound while not losing their familiarity.
This movie might be enjoyable if you shut off your brain and tune out while absorbing the audio/visual experience unhindered by critical thought. But two hours later, you may decide you'd have preferred to just watch a short Gap commercial.