Across the Universe
FLICK With a reputation for creating spectacular eye candy, director Julie Taymor continues to deliver the sweet stuff with Across the Universe, a psychedelic love story during the changing 1960’s propelled by the music of The Beatles. Though also song-driven but nothing like the 1978 film Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band featuring Peter Frampton and the Bee Gees, Taymor’s version shows how dancing at proms gives way to radical protesting. And as the story tackles more serious times, our sentiments grow stronger for the central characters.
Familiarity with The Beatles and their music will add to the fun of recognizing name references. Jim Sturgess is Jude, a dockworker from Liverpool who travels to Princeton in search of his father. While there he meets Max and Lucy, played by Joe Anderson and Evan Rachel Wood. Not only is the talented cast adept with interpreting the music, it is diverse. 
Prudence (T.V. Carpio) is an Asian-American lesbian cheerleader who makes an entrance into the house through the bathroom window. People and events of the era are referenced too. Inspired by Jimi Hendrix, Jo-Jo (Martin Luther McCoy) is a guitarist, and aspiring sexy rock singer Sadie (Dana Fuchs) echoes Janis Joplin. And there is a moment that recreates when the Fab Four jammed at lunchtime atop their Apple Studios. (The studio here is called Strawberry Jams.)
In the midst of the Vietnam War, Lucy is protesting while Jude, an artist, sketches what the Beatles used for a logo, a green apple. Taymor is inspired by the song "Strawberry Fields Forever" as Jude sticks strawberries on a white canvas. The fruit look like small hearts that bleed down the white background emphasizing the killing abroad and the bashing during rioting at home.
The film takes several detours to give us the mind-altering splendor we expect. Eddie Izzard is the circus MC Mr. Kite accompanied by what resembles paper mache Blue Meanies, and Bono portrays an author whose book is titled “I Am the Walrus”.
The actors creatively interpret the songs with slight shifts in perspective from their original versions. When the army drafts Max, a poster of Uncle Sam comes to life, pointing his finger and singing “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” while video game-looking recruitment officers step in time, gather inductees’ physical statistics and eventually carry off the Statue of Liberty.
Offering more than just whirling dervishes of color and love, love, love, Across the Universe is a total entertainment package that is out of this world. My Score: 8.5 out of 10.
Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite
Across the Universe Trailer 2 (I've Just Seen A Face)
