Across the Universe Review

I was torn about seeing Julie Taymor's new film. I love the Beatles, but traditionally dislike musicals. I'm definitely a Taymor fan, but there were multiple rumors of studio interference with her vision.

Finally, since Taymor said they reached a compromise, and since there was nothing else out this weekend but Across the Universe was surprisingly playing in a theater in the next county (Ozaukee), I decided to see it. And it was pretty awesome.

Fair warning: it has no plot, really, it's cheesy beyond belief in places, other parts are way overdone, but I expected all this, and the winning Beatles songs are right up my alley. It's like Moulin Rouge with all Beatles songs, or more like Rent with all Beatles songs (since most of it is set in Bohemian New York).

A liverpudlian named Jude (Jim Sturgess) comes to the great US of A and meets a girl named Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). Get it? Their friends are named Sadie, Max, Jojo, and Prudence. (Get it? Pretty clever, huh?) This leads to an inevitable anticipation of each character's eponymous songs, and they all pop up except for "Sexy Sadie" and "Maxwell's Silver Hammer" (although I suspect those will be in the director's extended edition).

While the simple melodrama of the plot plays out, characters occasionally just burst into song regular-musical style, but other times they sing to the accompaniment of trippy, classic Taymor colorful setpieces. It may be distracting, but come one people: one of those setpieces is Bono as a psychedlic guru singing "I Am the Walrus," and another is a devilish Eddie Izzard (!) madcapping his way through "Being for the benefit of Mr. Kite." It doesn't get any awesomer than that.

I suppose it is a little odd that Beatles music is now such an ingrained part of the cultural wallpaper that it inspires trippy movies and entire Cirque de Soleil productions, but they still maintain their immediacy and pop-song appeal. At least to me they do (people are either Lennon-revolutionaries or laid-back happy song McCartneys, I find, and I'm definitely the latter). And for the most part I didn't mind the reworkings of all of the fab four's oeuvre, except for one rendition of "Blackbird" that Wood (or the person singing for her) absolutely butchered.

So if you're a Beatles fan at heart, definitely go see it. I for some reason always find Evan Rachel Wood completely insufferable (same thing with Toni Collette. Can't explain it.) but I had a great time.

When to See It: Before it leaves theaters