Across the Universe
Directed by Julie Taymor
Written by Dick Clement, Ian La Frenais and Julie Taymor
2007/USA
Revolution Studios/Gross Entertainment/Team Todd/Sound Film
First viewing/FilmStruck
[box] JoJo: Music’s the only thing that makes sense anymore, man.[/box]
The sixties were never this psychedelic nor crammed with CGI.
The period covered is 1963-1968. Jude (Jim Sturgess) ships out of Liverpool as a merchant seaman. Upon his arrival in the U.S., he jumps ship becoming an illegal alien in the process. He soon meets a wealthy beauty named Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood) and they fall in love. Lucy is a radical and her friends become Jude’s. Many of these people are musicians.
Jude is an artist not a fighter, something that does not sit well with Lucy. So they break up and a bunch more stuff happens before they are reunited. With Joe Anderson as Maxwell, Lucy’s brother; Dana Fuchs as Sexy Sadie, Bono as Dr. Robert; Joe Cocker as a street singer; and Eddie Izzard as Mr. Kite.
This movie tries to encompass the turbulent sixties through the music of the Beatles. Thirty songs are performed by the actors themselves. These are some of the best covers of Beatles music ever and the film is an auditory treat. It also looks great. But the real sixties was not beset with massive helpings of largely self-indulgent CGI and I would have liked this better without it.
Across the Universe was nominated for an Academy Award for Best Achievement in Costume Design.
