A Scientist at the Movies Reviews by Greg Paris

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Title: Across the Universe

Date Viewed: 10/19/07

Details:

Evan Rachel Wood (Lucy Carrigan)

Jim Sturgess (Jude)

Joe Anderson (Max Carrigan)

Dana Fuchs (Sadie)

Martin Luther McCoy (JoJo)

T.V. Carpio (Prudence)

Written & directed: Julie Taymor

Score: +1/2

The Review: A surreal trip down memory lane -- the 60's with a Beatles soundtrack.

An odd mix of drama, documentary and musical theatre. It resonates with the times, without retreating too deeply into the dark place. Basically a love story mapped against the angst and confusion of the 1960's, everything is infused with the spirit of the Beatles: character names, narrative songs, occasional visual puns, geography. A young Liverpool dock worker (Jude: Sturgess) ships out to America, wanders through Princeton and New York, and falls in love with his best friend's (Max: Anderson) sister (Lucy: Wood). Other central characters wander in from the periphery, enmeshed in the events of the times, including the Detroit riots and the Midwest. The psychedelic counterculture slowly seeps across the screen, lending both color and surrealism; the Vietnam war looms as a sinister plot element, pervasive and inescapable. It's all very familiar.

The music is excellent! What is remarkable are the voices of the two leads, and their excellent rendering of many Beatles lyrics. In most cases, there is minimal accompaniment and no backup -- they're flying solo, and they fly amazingly well. Two cuts in particular are worth the price of admission -- "If I Fell" ("...in Love with You") by Lucy, and "Something" ("...in the Way She Moves") by Jude -- both hauntingly beautiful, chromatically fascinating, minimalist. The complex tonal modulation is exposed in the absence of any backup band -- and it's great!

Entertaining, with tons of fun cameos: Bono and Eddie Izzard as competing simulations of Timothy Leary, Joe Cocker as a pimp, and Salma Hayek as one or more nurses (it's not clear). Dana Fuchs (as Sadie) channels a lot of Janis Joplin's attitude, while McCoy (as JoJo) has more than a hint of Hendrix's sound. And an old friend from the early 70's also wandered on-stage in both fantastic and political roles: the Bread and Puppet Theatre.

You will be strongly tempted to sing along because you already know the lyrics. One of the advantages of doing this in a poorly attended theatre (this film might be a bit too "arty" for some folks) is that no one will yell at you. Enjoy.

(20-Oct-07)

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