"Across The Universe" review

(Think I wait and Netflix this one....)

Beatles for Sale: All You Need Is Imagination
I admire director Julie Taymor and composer Elliot Goldenthal so much that I come to you with news of “Across the Universe” with a heavy heart. They’ve made a kaleidoscope in which too many ideas collide.

Brilliant to look at, with plenty of talented people from actors to makeup artists, costume designers and scenarists, this film with around 30 Beatles songs woven into an artificial story is an absolute bewilderment.

Never boring to watch, “Across the Universe” — which I saw last night at a big cast and crew screening at the Ziegfeld — is like a carnival on acid.

But the real tip-off that something is wrong, I think, comes with this news: The film does not contain the title song. That’s right. All those famous Beatles songs and “Across the Universe.” Huh?

Taymor — creator of “The Lion King” on stage, the incandescent film “Frida” and the ambitious, fascinating “Titus” — goes so far in “Universe” that she almost doesn’t come back. It’s as if she’s made 30 amazing music videos, all little works of art and genius.

Of course, she features her trademark papier-mâché puppets. They dance and menace alongside the actors, often with dazzling effect.

But at some point she starts to get slowly diminishing returns. Think of each presentation as one sumptuous dessert after another.

The culprit here is the script, by Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais, the veteran and usually much more inventive British duo. The writers have concocted a mostly incoherent story built around the Beatles’ songs.

Characters are named for those familiar Beatle pals: Lucy (in the Sky), (Hey) Jude, (Sexy) Sadie, JoJo (Get Back), (Dear) Prudence. All they’re missing are Eleanor Rigby, Billy Shears and Vera, Chuck and Dave (the trio of grandchildren on the knee from “When I’m 64”).

And so the story goes that Jude comes to America from Liverpool in the mid 1960s to find his biological father. That plot point is quickly achieved, and Jude stays on.

He meets American brother and sister, Lucy and Max (as in "Maxwell’s Silver Hammer," also not performed), and they all get embroiled in hippie, anti-war activities. None of it makes any sense.

The old Beatles cartoon on TV had better character development. But the story is set in motion. Songs will be sung.
On the positive side, Taymor has chosen an unusually talented group of young people for her cast. Jim Sturgess (Jude) and Joe Anderson (Max) are standouts. Sturgess can really sing and looks enough like Paul McCartney to make it work for him. Anderson — British but a Kurt Cobain look-alike — may be the find of the film.

Evan Rachel Wood, who wowed audiences in the movie “Thirteen,” is very good as Lucy, even though her physical appearance has changed a lot. She is a powerhouse of an actress, which helps when the material is skimpy.

Taymor is smart to stay mostly with unknown actors. At the same time, she throws in a couple of nutty star cameos to keep us busy. Salma Hayek appears as a multiplicity of nurses in one sequence. Bono, in a cowboy hat, gets to sing “I Am the Walrus” — Elvis-style.

More successful is a cool moment of inspiration with Joe Cocker on “Come Together.” Even Harry Lennix (from “Titus”) breezes through a scene. Eddie Izzard is fanciful as Mr. Kite, as in “Being for the Benefit of …”.

There’s so much going on, however, the sugar overload from all that dessert made me feel like Willy Wonka at the Sony/ATV board of directors meeting. (You see, Sony made the movie, and they own the songs with our friend, Michael Jackson. This was their marketing idea.)

The imposition of the script doesn’t help. One reason Cirque du Soleil’s “Love” show in Las Vegas succeeds on its own terms is because they let the Beatles speak for themselves. Here too much is imposed on them.

Nevertheless, it’s Taymor’s movie. All the guys in Max’s college dorm performing a rousing “With a Little Help From My Friends” is infectious fun. Anderson’s rendering of “I Want You” is off the hook, too, as imagined by Taymor.

And she also tries to recreate some subtle Beatle moments, like the rooftop “Let It Be” concert (good) and the famed photo of naked, entangled John and Yoko (bad idea). I’m surprised she didn’t attempt the cover of Sgt. Pepper.

In the end, “Across the Universe” is not at all like the Robert Stigwood/BeeGees/Peter Frampton horror show of “Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band” from the late 1970s. Taymor is far too sophisticated and important to be left with that rubric.

But somehow she’s rendered the usually resilient Beatles gestalt tedious while striving for genius. Instead of “Come Together,” she got “Helter Skelter.”

Thanks for that hof a very good and useful review, I will probably download it from the net (well hubby will for me) to watch!!

My oldest is incredibly excited for this one. She already has plans to see this on opening night...with her boyfriend....so I may wait till Netflix has it too :)

Looks like Paul and Ringo like it!! Ottowacitizen.com have this report:


Beatles musical pleases Sir Paul and Ringo

Film uses songs to tell story of young people in '60s

Chris Knight, The National Post
Published: Thursday, September 13, 2007

Every filmmaker worries about pleasing the critics. The two most worrisome and influential for Julie Taymor and her Beatles musical Across the Universe weren't Ebert & Roeper, however, but Sir Paul and Ringo.

"I was sitting right next to Paul McCartney," says Taymor, remembering an early screening, "and so scared and nervous, and he really liked the movie and under his breath he started even singing one of the songs. I could feel him moving to All My Loving."

Ringo Starr took in the film in Los Angeles at a screening attended by Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess, who play the lead characters of Lucy and Jude in the film. "We spent the whole time watching him watching the film," says Sturgess, "and we're like, 'Yes! He's tapping his foot!' "

Sturgess, a 26-year-old from London, got to meet Starr after the screening and says: "The biggest compliment of all was he didn't realize that I wasn't from Liverpool. If Ringo Starr bought it, that was good enough for me."

Across the Universe had a gala screening at the Toronto International Film Festival Monday and opens in Toronto, Montreal and Vancouver tomorrow, with wider release to follow. The movie uses Beatles songs to tell of a group of young people in the '60s: Jude, who travels from Liverpool to America to find his father; Lucy, with whom he falls in love; and Max (Joe Anderson), Lucy's carefree brother, who gets drafted and sent to Vietnam.

Minor characters such as Prudence, Sadie and JoJo allow for more lyrics and songs to be used; in all, 33 of the group's numbers saturate the picture, and the two-hour-and-13-minute movie has only about a half hour of actual dialogue.

Taymor won two Tonys -- direction and costume design -- for her Broadway adaption of Disney's The Lion King. Both those talents are on display in Across the Universe. "You'd be walking around one day and suddenly you'd see this giant puppet being built in the next studio," Sturgess recalls.

For Taymor, part of the appeal of Across the Universe was its epic nature. "You have a love story but you also have a story of ambition," she says. "You can't just do the hippies and the psychedelics without doing the race riots and the darkness."

The original idea from screenwriters Dick Clement and Ian La Frenais was to use 15 songs, but the concept kept growing. "The story was created by listening to 200 songs and choosing songs that could lend themselves to this basic story," says Taymor, "and then the story was created around the songs. It was a round robin that way, one thing inspiring another."

In addition to his powerful singing voice in Across the Universe, Sturgess stars in the upcoming films The Other Boleyn Girl with Scarlett Johansson, Natalie Portman and Eric Bana; and 21 with Kate Bosworth, Kevin Spacey and Laurence Fishburne. He also has a role in Crossing Over, starring Harrison Ford, Ashley Judd and Sean Penn.

"I had a great time because I had the privilege of discovering him," says Taymor proudly.

The film held open casting sessions in London, Liverpool, Manchester, Blackpool and America, but when she saw Sturgess, "I knew right away. There was no doubt. He had the edge. He had the voice. There's no disconnect between his speaking voice and when he starts to sing, he's a consummate musician."

She says Sturgess got an early taste of fame at a taping of The Oprah Winfrey Show, which has yet to be broadcast. "It was like being at an early Beatles concert," she says. "The swooning ladies!"

Best of the Beatles: Film fest stars pick Fab Four favourites

2 hours ago

TORONTO (AP) — What's the best Beatles song?

The revolutionary tunes of John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr are back on the big-screen with "Across the Universe," a boy-meets-girl musical romance set amid the social turbulence of Vietnam and the 1960s.

In advance of its theatrical debut Friday, "Across the Universe" played at the Toronto International Film Festival, where The Associated Press asked stars what Beatles song was their favourite.

Most hemmed and hawed, some said it was impossible to pick one and a couple chose a certain post-Beatles Lennon composition.

A sampling of what they had to say:

-Evan Rachel Wood, star of "Across the Universe":

"It's hard, because it depends on where you are in your life and what day it is, because they really covered everything. So right now, hmm, recently, I would sing 'Happiness Is a Warm Gun.' I got into that because of 'Across the Universe.' It's my favourite number in the movie, how it's this strange, dark song. I like their weird stuff, too, even when they did 'Blue Jay Way' and 'Fool on the Hill.' You listen to it and it was so ahead of its time. You hear Radiohead nowadays and you're like, wow, I can see these strange similarities."

-Julie Taymor, director of "Across the Universe":

"People have asked me that already, and I better come up with one. I love 'Something (in the Way She Moves).' I love 'And I Love Her.' ... I like all of the different periods. Every period, there's something so great about their work. If you say in the early period, what's my favourite, I think 'All My Loving' is incredible. But now I'm stuck on the way these kids (in the movie) sing it."

-Former President Jimmy Carter, subject of the documentary "Man From Plains":

"My favourite is 'Imagine.' When I go to a strange country, Cuba and other places, in some of those nations, 'Imagine' has become a national anthem. If you go to Havana, for instance, you'll see a statue of John Lennon. . . . When we go to a folk performance or a symphony concert or to modern American music, they always play 'Imagine,' and it's one of my favourites just personally. If you listen to the lyrics closely, you'll see that it's against religion, it's against national boundaries, it's against nationalism, it's against jingoism, but the impact it has on people is profound."

-Jonathan Demme, director of "Man From Plains," whose musical documentaries include "Neil Young: Heart of Gold" and the Talking Heads concert film "Stop Making Sense":

"Oh, gosh, 'In My Life,' I guess. It explains love amongst people, how the passage of time impacts them. I just think it's gorgeous."

-Brad Pitt, star of "The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford":

" 'Come Together,' 'While My Guitar Gently Weeps.' I love the psychedelic phase, but yeah, that's really tough for me to pick. 'Come Together' is (great). I can't tell you why. I'm not good that way. I just know it works for me."

-Michael Caine and Jude Law, stars of "Sleuth":

Caine: " 'Hey Jude.' It's got nothing to do with him (pointing to Law and giving a huge laugh). It's philosophical. It's deep. It's a deep song."

Law: "I don't have favourites."

Caine: "I'll take back 'Hey Jude' and you can say 'Hey Jude."'

Law: "No, it wouldn't be 'Hey Jude.' I've got so many memories of that song being played. Thank God, it's a good song. It would be terrible to be named after an awful song. 'Across the Universe,' actually. I like that one. I've always enjoyed Lennon's nonsense verse."

-Emily Mortimer, co-star of "Lars and the Real Girl":

" 'In My Life,' I think, or 'Here, There and Everywhere.' They just make me sort of cry. I feel like 'In My Life' I'd like played at my funeral, and 'Here, There and Everywhere' is just the most romantic, heartbreaking, sad, beautiful song that I know."

-Michael Douglas, star of "King of California":

"I love 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' as an album. And 'Imagine' probably would come to mind. It is the ideal that you always hope this is what the world could become. This is the hope and the dream and the wish. And certainly being part of the '60s, it was something that we imagined was going to happen. That was going to be the way the world could be."

-Kenneth Branagh, director of "Sleuth":

"I could pick one for you. 'For No One.' It's a lovely tune. It's just that sad thing, 'The day breaks, your mind aches, you find that all her words of kindness linger on when she no longer needs you.' It's a great, great popular tune that has that melancholic canopy over it."

-Ryan Gosling, star of "Lars and the Real Girl":

"My mother's a huge Beatles freak, so I grew up on their music, and that's all we listened to in the house. This is going to be a tough question. Favourite Beatles song? It's not really Beatles, but I love some of George Harrison so much. Huh, favourite Beatles song? I'm probably not supposed to take this long, huh? This is a real test. This is where the rubber meets the road, my friend, this question. This is a great question. Separate the wheat from the chaff on this one. Aye-yi-yi, favourite Beatles song. OK, I'll pick a record, then I'll pick something from the record (hums to himself). OK, I'm getting there. 'Here, There and Everywhere."'

And why?

"You can't ask me that. It's going to take me another five minutes to figure that one out."

http://canadianpress.google.com/arti...0LXdJY71FEKuEA

Hmm good to hear it got some good reviews! And especially since Sir Paul and Ringo approved! Aww thats sweet that Paul was humming some songs!

The toronto star write up wasn't so great though.... I don't have the article on me now...but it gave it 1 1/2 stars... I'm still gonna see it though!

Yeah me too I want to see the film, after all the reviews are only one persons opinion and we are all individuals capable of making our own minds up!

I definitely want to see it. Critics are so critical (well that's their job, i guess) and pay attention to things that never cross my mind. I'll see it and form my own opinion. If you look at Rotten Tomatoes though, It's in the middle. There are quite a few who didnt like and quite a few who give it almost 5 stars. (on Fandango it seems to be well liked-4.6 out of 5.) So i guess either you like it or you dont.

Originally Posted by oldbeatlechick

Yeah me too I want to see the film, after all the reviews are only one persons opinion and we are all individuals capable of making our own minds up!

I couldn't have said it better myself and why I'll be seeing the film in theaters. I can't imagine if it's that much of a spectacle that it will be the same on DVD at home even on a big flat screen tv.

I, too will be seeing it. Movies for me are much more effective in the theater on the large screen as opposed to on dvd on your television screen.

Like John said on the Beatles' 1963 Christmas album, we'll be speaking with our voices when we rate and review and discuss this film.

I thought the movie was terrific. They definitely played "Across the Universe", so I don't know what the first reiewer is talking about. Also, the story sequence made perfect sense to me, but maybe that is just because it was like re-living my childhood in San Francisco. All three of the main characters gave excellent performances. In fact, everyone was great. I don't think I can wait for the DVD release to see it again!

I saw it and liked it. The covers were actually pretty decent, especially T.V. Carpio's "I Want to Hold Your Hand." I was pleasantly surprised.

Cool cars; a good 60s story line and excellent supply of Beatle references. I also liked the choreography of "I Want You/She's So Heavy."

I mentioned this elsewhere I but I did get to see it!!! Yay! And i really liked it. I especially loved Jim Sturgess, as he was part of the reason I saw it at all. I liked the fact that the songs were sung well and not like, 'well, let's take this song and make it country, and let's take this one and make it reggae' cuz I'm not into that. One part I didnt care for was the Mr Kite sequence because it was kinda creepy and almost didnt flow with the rest of the movie. I didnt understand the point of having it there.

Every Beatle fan should see this wonderful movie. It is a beautiful gift to Beatlemaniacs. It's like a great album - I can't wait to see it again!

Originally Posted by Fluxus

Every Beatle fan should see this wonderful movie. It is a beautiful gift to Beatlemaniacs. It's like a great album - I can't wait to see it again!

Couldn't agree more! Its visually astounding, the acting is pretty damn good, and the songs are handled with love and respect and as Lennonluvr9 said, they aren't completely changed. Beautiful wonderful, amazing film!

personally, i loved each little music video of the songs, but hated how they attempted to make some sort of story out of the string of Beatle songs... jim sturgess was amazing as an actor... he reminded me of all four of them. the girl, however was a bit bland for beatle music. as entertainment, and music video it was amazing. as a beatle "movie" -didn't like it so much.

I didn't think it was the greatest either, HL, but I thought it was decent enough.

I just wish there had been more cool cars in that movie like some Falcons and Galaxies, cool cars like that!

I just saw it for the first time over the weekend, and while it had its flaws, I liked it in spite of them. I typically don't like musicals, especially rock/pop musicals, but this one I enjoyed. No doubt the songs helped, but the thing had a sort of naive charm that appealed.
My 21-year-old daughter loves it.