• the217
• Movies + TV
• Across the Universe can't live up to its muses

Related Media

Across the Universe

Call me a sucker, but I love new musicals. Moulin Rogue!, Chicago, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, Meet Me In St. Louis, the list goes on. I simply cannot get enough of the power of sound and sight.

As an avid Beatles fan (aren’t we all?), I was torn when Across the Universe came out. I really wanted to see a movie comprised of nothing but Beatles songs, but I generally hate remakes and to remake a Beatles song is like repainting Starry Night (you thought I was going to say The Mona Lisa, didn’t you? Starry Night is better).

So what’s the verdict on this one? Was it a gem like Grease or a flop like The Wiz?

Across the Universe is a disjointed but fantastic visual journey through the Vietnam era. Using the music of the Beatles, the film follows America’s journey from the golden era to an era of disillusionment and it’s reconciliation through the lives of several characters, all aptly named after people in Beatles songs (ie, Jude, Prudence, Lucy, etc). Although I enjoyed the movie, I couldn’t help but be bother by its numerous flaws.

Across the Universe is best described as Moulin Rogue! meets Pink Floyd The Wall, although both of these movies were much better.

A pivotal problem with Across the Universe is its attempt to anchor itself within the narrative of the plot. Instead of allowing the material to transcend logic and allowing the imagery of the film to tell the story, the director makes a conscious effort to bring the film back to some sense of “reality” when it gets metaphysical. This stalls and spoils the momentum of the film, causing its two hour and three minute run time to feel more like four hours.

Additionally, the transitions between the various thematics of the film were often incoherent and discontinuous; the plot often dwelled on one topic before sporadically changing to another. While the movie as a whole may have worked, the disorganization in transition within this film leads me to believe that it might have been best realized as a series of shorts.

Another crucial flaw of Across the Universe is that the film’s versions of various Beatles songs are dull by comparison. Where Moulin Rogue! whimsically reinvented pop songs, Across the Universe merely attempts to place the Beatles songs in context and hope it all makes sense. Sometimes this works and other times it does not.

The first twenty minutes of the movie are a particularly frustrating example of when it doesn’t work. The lackluster cover of “Helter Skelter” that finds greater meaning towards the end of the film is particularly out of place in the opening scenes as the film itself has yet to be placed in any sort of context. In fact, Across the Universe started off slow and dull enough that I was tempted to turn off the movie twice in the first twenty minutes. However, the film quickly picked up after the fantastic sequence involving the song “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” which greatly reminded me of the “Goodbye Blue Sky” scene from Pink Floyd The Wall.

Despite my criticisms of this movie, however, I still feel it was great. Even though it was flawed, it was still genuine and meaningful -- something rare in movies these days. The cinematography was fantastic and the singing was wonderful. I’d surely recommend listening to “Love” over the soundtrack to Across the Universe, but the songs work well in the context of the movie. All in all, Across the Universe was a very good movie that just fell short of greatness.