Review of Across the Universe (2007) by Emely R — 20 May 2012

Oh boy, what a dilemma this movie is. I saw this film when it was first in theaters. At the time, I was nothing more than a casual listener of Beatles music. I heard mixed things about it, but I was determined to keep an open mind and see what I personally thought. After the mediocre reviews it got from critics and my friends, I was not surprised to see that they were right. The movie simply wasn't that good.

More recently, I became an obsessive Beatles fan. Now I have all their albums, I've read practically everything there is to know about them, seen the Beatles Anthology, etc., etc., etc. I was interested in watching the movie again to see how it would fare now that I'm a huge fan of the Beatles. I didn't think my opinion would change much, but I was wrong. I actually like the movie even LESS than I did before.

The story follows Jude (aww, what a conveniently named character!), a hot British guy who was guaranteed to blind teenage girls into thinking that the movie is actually good (it worked.) He travels to America for...some reason...OH! That's right! He went to see his dad! Who, conveniently enough, has absolutely NOTHING to do with the story (He shows up once more at the end to get Jude out of jail...what a great guy!). His dad turns out to be a janitor at a campus...somewhere...does it really matter where? So, basically, Jude shows up in America, talks to his dad, and that's the end of that story. He ends up meeting Max (who apparently uses a silver hammer in this movie...how clever. Thank God they didn't butcher that song as well) and they hit it off! In fact, they hit it off SO well that they become best friends within 5 minutes! One second, Jude helps him escape from campus security, and the next they're singing "With a Little Help from my Friends"! (Apparently, the extent of the filmmaker's 'cleverness' is to have Max and company get high as they sing 'I get high with a little help from my friends'.).

Anyway, Jude falls in love with Max's sister, Lucy (once again, this is the extent of the cleverness of this movie), and they proceed to live through the 60's TOGETHER!!

I don't really want to try to explain the plot anymore, because the truth is, there IS no plot. The movie is a bunch of musical sequences strung together, desperately trying to pretend it's a story. There were points when the song choices were so ridiculous and random that you can actually sense the writers just trying to find places to fit in the songs. It almost makes the movie a parody. There were so many unintentionally hilarious song placements that I found myself laughing almost as much as I was wincing at the terrible dialogue ("I am being radical mother! I should be radical! YOU should be radical! Everyone should be radical!"), which also tries to fit in song titles with very lame results. For example, Prudence climbs in through the bathroom window...the characters' response?

"She came in through the bathroom window!".

You can almost hear the audience laughter track or the drumroll that signals the punch line...it's that bad.

The movie also throws in a bunch of supporting characters such as Sadie (who isn't sexy...BLASPHEMY!!), Jojo, and Prudence who serve NO purpose to the story. They're only there for the quick reference and then all of a sudden they're...just there. Prudence is the worst. She literally only exists in order for the song 'Dear Prudence' to be performed. They try to justify her appearance by having her show up randomly throughout the movie, such as in Mr. Kite's tent ("Hey! Is that Prudence? What is SHEEEE doing here??" I thought this was hilarious) Sadie and Jojo have some sort of...relationship that goes through all the motions as mechanically as possible (the lady who plays Sadie cannot act or sing to save her life) However, This relationship never actually has a point in the story (you'll see a lot of that in this movie). There are also completely random appearances by characters like 'Dr. Robert' (played by Bono, who sings an okay rendition of I Am the Walrus) who only appear for the sake of a "oh look, it's Dr. Robert! Like the song!" moment.

The movie tries to fit in the whole of the 60's within a 2 hour movie. Not surprisingly, it fails miserably. It seems more like they just tried to include every major event (Vietnam, King Jr.'s assassination, etc.) just to have an excuse to remind everyone that it's the 60's. Also, there is no way possible to accurately portray the 60's in a PG-13 movie. Everything just comes off as cartoony and fake.

Anyway, on to the music...it's just as bad as the rest of the movie. The performances are all sugar coated so that all the teenage girls can swoon to the music and pretend they enjoy the Beatles. In every performance, the voices sound over-produced and fake. Some of the renditions range from just plain awful (It Won't Be Long, Helter Skelter, Dear Prudence, Hey Jude, etc.) to not bad (Strawberry Fields Forever and Come Together). The choreography is the same way. Some of it is cool (Hold Me Tight) and some of it is stupid (I Want You, Happiness is a Warm Gun...what was with that stupid preacher?). None of the songs have any purpose in the story, and if they do, their usage is completely obvious (Jude and Lucy argue about a revolution...which song do you think they sing?). The symbolism and 'art' is also COMPLETELY ridiculous (The worst is Max and the other army boys carrying the Statue of Liberty on their backs as they trudge through Vietnam.). The only sequence I really liked was Strawberry Fields Forever, but, once again, what was the point? Jude is upset...he looks at a bowl of strawberries....VOILA! The song begins!!

If I could praise this movie on one thing it would be this: They don't include a lot of music from Rubber Soul and Revolver, the two best Beatles albums. Thank God for that.

And, in the end, though the musical sequences range from somewhat visually stunning to ridiculously corny, the plot is plain awful. The fact that the songs have nothing to do with the movie makes the film disjointed. It's like two completely different movies shoved together, one that puts a corny, sappy love story in a poorly depicted 60's environment. The other being an attempted tribute to the Beatles. In trying to make the two separate movies work as a coherent whole, the movie fails as a result of them having nothing to do with each other.

What really makes me dislike this movie is that now millions of people all over the world consider themselves Beatles fans simply from seeing this movie. Chances are, if you ask a teenage girl what her favorite Beatles album is they will respond 'oh, I just have the soundtrack to Across the Universe.'.

WHAT.

THE.

FUCK.

As another critic put it (quite brilliantly), "You're better off putting the Beatles on shuffle while tripping on acid than watching this movie.".