Across the Universe

So this is the first of these that I’m doing. I plan on doing many more, namely because they are quick, not hard and will make me think about the movies i just watched. Starting it off (if the title hasn’t given it away for you) is my review on “Across the Universe”. Oh, and while i may call these ‘reviews’ they are more just my take on the films with a hefty dose of judgement thrown in .

Set in the 60s, this movie  follows the lives of the main characters “Jude” and “Lucy” who are surrounded by the craziness born out of the emerging coutner culture of peace, love, music, and drugs. The journey is an enjoyable one, puntuated often by intersting visual presentations that one can only assume are the directors attempt to pleasingly convey acid trips. In fact, when renting this movie the man behind the coutner strongly incouraged some form of intoxication prior to viewing–i can see why. While these somewhat esoteric forays didn’t succeed in making me feeling as if i were viewing the movie in an altered state they served to keep things…unpredictable.

So as you all probably know, the main draw of this film is that the plot is accented by the music of the Beatles. Indeed, there is hardly a 5 minute segment in which the cast doesn’t break out into song. As a matter of disclosure i’m not a fan of traditional musicals with their large orchestras and operatic main stars. Still, i was pretty excited by the prospect of a movie filled with Beatles songs. On the whole the film didn’t disappoint to deliver these songs faithfully with just the write amount of twist in their presentation to make them feel right coming from the characters. Another boon to the overall presentation of the music was the integration of two characters representing the Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin. It was cool to see even more references to actual figures of the time and again lent some variety to the presentation of the music.

That said, I’m not sure it was a good film. I enjoyed it; i sang along at parts; and the music and art direction was above par; but it missed in one critical sense: plot. Plot to me is important to a film. Even the simplest plot can make a good film assuming that it feels genuine and is rationally self-motivating. What I mean by this is that there is a force in the story (or on the edge of it) that drives forward the actions of the main characters. The problem with the plot of “Across the Universe” is that it wasn’t served by the fantastic music it took such pride in–it was driven by it. One scene didn’t flow in to the next as much as it was dragged there by the next Beatles’ song that fit. Sometimes the movie produced characters (e.g. Prudence) whose sole purpose was to allow for yet another song to be included.

Does this matter though if i enjoyed it? Well, perhaps not. However, I think I would have enjoyed it more had I not been sitting, asking myself “Wait, why would he/she have done this?” only to discover the only answer i can conjure is “oh, this song is why.”

Despite all this though, I would recommend anyone who enjoys the Beatles see this movie.

…and that’s my $0.02