33 Beatles songs!
'Universe' is fab-four-ulous
By Phil Villarreal
Pvillarreal@azstarnet.com
Tucson, Arizona | Published: 09.27.2007
Every little thing Julie Taymor does is magic.
The director won a Tony for her Broadway musical "The Lion King," and her films "Frida" and "Titus" are visual dazzlers.
Her new film, "Across the Universe," is no different. The '60s-set musical inventively incorporates 33 Beatles songs into its fabric.
A stiff, blah plot and some corny storytelling choices hold the stunning film back from the transcendence to which it aspires. When characters are introduced as Jude, Lucy and Prudence — cheap, obvious setups to use the Beatles' songs that include those names — it's tough to stifle the groan reflex. And without the music, the story line would seem trite and uninteresting: Disaffected youths come from corners of society to meet in New York and become hippies, soldiers and singers.
Liverpool lad Jude (Jim Sturgess) spurns a life of blue-collar work to journey to American and look for his long-lost father. He befriends Max (Joe Anderson), an Ivy Leaguer on the verge of dropping out — the turning on and tuning in will come later — and falls for Max's sister, Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). All three end up in New York, where they take up with a musician, as well as Prudence (T.V. Carpio), a woman who hitchhikes her way out of the Midwest once she realizes she's a lesbian. The youngsters encounter drug and protest movements led by Dr. Robert (Bono) and Mr. Kite (Eddie Izzard).
But enough of the story. The film is all about the visuals and music. Employing a mash-up of camera and lighting tricks, stop-motion and computer animation, Taymor creates a psychedelic magical mystery tour of bleeding strawberries, underwater ballets and lockstep-marching G.I. Joe action figures. Some scenes go on too long, as does the movie as a whole, but each section pops with vibrancy and sociological depth.
The message is that the Beatles were so in tune with the 1960s zeitgeist that people of the era didn't simply listen to the music, they lived it. Guess that's what happens when a band is "more popular than Jesus."
Taymor does a fine job of finding the applicable songs for the proper moments, but she could have chosen some better Beatles tunes. "Do You Want to Know a Secret" would have been a natural for one of the many sequences in the film in which one character is crushing on another, and "In My Life" would have been a natural for Jude's return to Liverpool. Taymor definitely could have done without "I Am the Walrus."
The songs are not always well sung, but often there's enough passion and poignancy to make up for the lack of talent. At times, there are new takes on lyrics, such as when a lonely Prudence croons "I Want to Hold Your Hand" mournfully toward a cheerleader who doesn't share the sentiment.
Other tunes are changed forever, not for better, but it's tough to ignore the call from "Across the Universe" to "love me do."
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