Movie Review: Across the Universe

Across the Universe is hard to sum up in simple terms. First off it's bad, really really really really bad. But not for the usual reasons that a movie is bad. It's not bad acting, or writing, or directing, or effects, or any one part really. It was simply a project that was doomed from conception.

Across the Universe was an attempt to basically do for the Beatles what Mama Mia did for ABBA. By taking Beatles songs and using them as both background and sung by the characters as musical numbers, director Julie Taymor tries to tell a love story set in the 1960's Vietnam War era of American history. The problems with trying to do this become very apparent very quickly. Basically the people behind this film seemed to be far more interested in working in as many Beatles songs and references as possible rather than using them to actually tell a coherent story. As a result there is a fairly long list of scenes and characters that serve no function in the story other than to be a chance for another Beatles song. There is the character of Prudence who is introduced early and then vanishes for most of the running time of the film and seems to exist for the soul purpose of working in the song "Dear Prudence." Then there's the "I am the Walrus" leading into "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite," which are actually some of the livelier scenes in the film but do nothing to move the characters or story forward. Nothing that happens in those scenes leaves any lasting impact. In fact, almost nothing seems to have lasting impact; it's more a series of little vignettes using the same characters. There's very little in the way of a throughline to this film. And after a while the Beatles references become (aside from very obvious) rather annoying. There are many songs that are referenced even if they are never sung (such as "When I'm 64" and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer"). Though I imagine that all the references would make for one hell of a drinking game.

Even setting aside the way in which the songs are used, the story in Across the Universe doesn't have much going for it either. In much the way that the song aspect feels like a greatest hits, the story feels like a biggest events of the 60s collection. Every single overdone aspect of that time period is present: war protests, the draft, college drop outs, psychedelics, the changing music, artists movements in New York, race riots in Detroit. The film is sure to hit all of these beats but doesn't seem to bother actually linking them together meaningfully. It just jumps from one noted historical set piece to another, much in the way it jumps from one Beatles song to another.

The massive faults of Across the Universe all seem to be in the initial writing and final assembly of the film. There was clearly care that went into the actual making of the movie. It's a very beautifully shot film to watch, and from a visual aspect it evokes the period very well. The performances are all solid even though many of the characters serve little to no purpose. The singing and the song arrangements vary in how closely they stick to the original versions but they are never poorly done. The very thin love story and the numerous pointless detours to accomodate more references to the Beatles or the time period just doesn't hold up no matter how well it's done.

There's also an inconsistancy in the tone of this film. Most of it played fairly straight but there are two numbers that break that mold and result in the most memorable scenes in the film. The first is when the character of Max goes to the draft office and the poster of Uncle Sam starts to sing "I Want You So Bad." It goes into a nightmare vision of the military machine and the draft that is much more stylized and exagerated than anything that came before it. The other scene of note is Eddie Izzard and his spoken word rendition of "For the Benefit of Mr. Kite," which is basically just a drug trip sequence. Both of these numbers take bold moves in terms of how they are presented visually and it really made me wish the leap had been taken to push the whole film in that direction. If they'd done that they could have at least ended up with something along the lines of Pink Floyd's The Wall in terms of just an immersive and surreal movie/music experience. But instead these moments come and go and are by far the minority of what makes up the running time.

Ultimately Across the Universe can be seen as an interesting oddity for Beatles enthusiast. However, as a film it's just simply a mess. It was an interesting idea with a good group of people working on it, but I can't imagine there was really any way this film could have been made to work. That said there is some enjoyment to be had in some moments and from the good intentions behind the film. But good intentions don't save the final product. Not even close.

Final Score: 2 out of 5