Across the Universe

Reminiscent of Baz Luhrmann’s Moulin Rouge!, Across the Universe swirls 33 Beatles’ songs through a story of the love, loss and anti-war protests. It tracks the journey of the predictably-named Jude (Jim Sturgess), as he leaves Liverpool for Princeton in search of his birth father. While he may not find the paternal comfort he had been expecting, he does find a new direction after befriending Max (Joe Anderson) and his effervescent sister, Lucy (Evan Rachel Woods). Together, the three of them end up moving to New York to pursue a colourful bohemian existence, fuelled by music, art, energy and protest – where plot becomes secondary to the evocative sights and sounds of the sixties. By now the soundtrack has been well and truly focused centre stage, giving way to sprawling psychedelic sequences and fluoro animations set to recognisable Beatles’ classics. At this point, director Julie Taymore (Frida, Titus and the Broadway musical The Lion King) makes the risky decision to preference style over substance. And this is a risk that does not pay off.

Across the Universe’s colourful fantasy world feels inconsistent, forced and actually quite uninspired. All the usual sixties clichés are rolled out (Vietnam War, drug culture, civil rights protests), as if their presence alone should be enough to give the film some sort of deeper significance. Relationships are lost in the flurry of colour, particularly as the focus of the film swings schizophrenically through an entire range of incidental characters. Classic tracks are allowed to unnecessarily sprawl out at their full length where they would have functioned far more effectively as montages or snippets, particularly given the film’s rather painful length. The film’s tone shifts awkwardly from gritty realism and complex song interpretations to ridiculous theatrics and meaningless vocals (for example, “Dear Prudence” is sung to a character called Prudence with little actual connection to the narrative – Bollywood, anyone?). Essentially, this film becomes a mere showcase of the versatility of The Beatles’ music, rather than a sophisticated fusion of recognisable lyrics with fresh interpretations. It’s enjoyable – but only if conceived as a sequence of disjointed video clips set to some quite pleasing covers, rather than as a supposedly integrated whole.


Rating: 6.5