Magic; sublime; wonderful; never before the Beatles’ songs had been depicted, rearranged and put together in a similar way. In Across the Universe, director Julie Taymor not only created a remarkable playlist, but also brought alternative interpretations for the legendary songs that fascinated the world on the beginning of the sixties, and that still delights the ears and hearts of even those who were not here during those eight years of Beatles fever.
The sacred songs of the Fab Four are used to turn into poetry the lives of a group of young people who lives in New York. Although several friends play essential roles during the whole movie, the story basically concerns the love between Jude (Jim Sturgess), a young British boy from Liverpool who comes to America to find out who his father is, and the beautiful Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), an extremely wealthy girl from Ohio.
After the disillusion of meeting his father (a janitor of Princeton University), Jude becomes friends with a lively bohemian boy (Lucy’s brother), called Max (Joe Anderson), and they both move to New York. Lucy comes and joins the two boys a couple of months later. Jude becomes an artist, and as her brother goes to fight the war in Vietnam, Lucy engages in the antiwar movement, turning into an energetic peace agent.
Additionally to the already magic atmosphere created by the songs, director Julie Taymor implements many alternative visual effects that not only enhances the visual aspect of the film, but depicts the popular association between the Beatles and psychedelic esotericism. At the end, the movie represents not only a storyline with beginning, development and end; it is a visual and musical experience that carries people to a unique beautiful world.
I thought there were some really brilliant set pieces in the flick, but overall it didn't really work for me. It was trying too hard.
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