Thrown into the visually stunning world of the 60s with sex, drugs, hippie love and rock and roll, Across the Universe takes viewers through an engaging time of change, all set to the music of the Beatles. It is the most exciting and innovative film released this year. We follow the story of Jude (Jim Sturgess), a young Liverpool dock worker who, bored with his mundane surroundings, sets out to find his father, an American soldier who had a tryst with his mother during World War II.
The meeting with his father is secondary to the plot, and serves only as the catalyst to get things moving along. During his first day in America, Jude is led to a chance meeting with Max (Joe Anderson), a young university student who is also bored with life, and finds excitement from smoking, toking and drinking, all the while singing, I get high with a little help from my friends. Jude and Max quickly become best friends and journey together throughout the film.
Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), Max s younger sister is introduced, and it is clear that both she and Jude will fall in love, and though expected, it is entirely enjoyable. Full of life and excitement, the film opens us up to a musical world that has viewers smiling and trying not to sing along. Jude and Max take off for New York City together, and there we are introduced to their landlord Sadie (Dana Fuchs), the Janis Joplin figure, who is later joined by the Jimmy Hendrix figure JoJo (Martin Luther McCoy).
Misfits come together to find their own path away from the stifled constraints of society. Prudence (T.V.
Carpio), a closeted lesbian is also introduced, and here Beatles songs are given a different meaning, as they beg dear Prudence to come out through song. Lucy arrives in New York City and she and Jude finally fall in love. With Lucy singing If I Fell and Jude singing Something, the songs move the story along in a beautiful fashion.
Every song functions to progress the plot, moreso than dialogue. The film is truly a reflection of the 60s, incorporating a sense of revolutionary energy with the Vietnam War and the civil rights movements serving as more than a backdrop to the character s lives they are directly affected and involved with the changing state of the world they find themselves in. The cast s journey through taking hallucinogens with Bono, which produces startlingly appealing images onscreen, to war demonstrations and outright violence on the streets, paired with beautifully choreographed musical sequences produces a story audiences are sure to love.
Director Julie Taymor ties together an intricate story almost entirely full of song, and pairs it with characters who we can relate to, and fall in love with. Taymor has done what many others have failed at she makes a musical appear natural. The songs the characters sing are vital and with the perfect balance of music and storyline, Across the Universe achieves near perfection.
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