Across the Universe

Saturday afternoon I went to see a movie I have been waiting for since I first heard about it. The movie is called "Across the Universe" and it is a musical. There are people who by just throwing that word out there will automatically dismiss this movie. And I say... fine. Let them and their closed minds miss it... I will enjoy it regardless!!! HA!! Sorry, that was my snooty moment.



This movie is not a traditional musical in the way that Moulin Rouge was not a typical musical. That is to say that in traditional musicals when a song starts the story/action stops. In this movie the music is telling the story and the actors are singers (in the movie) and so when they sing it makes sense. The music is all written by the same band, and in case you didn't catch it from the title, that band is The Beatles. There are only 35 minutes of dialogue and over thirty Beatles songs that have been pieced together to help tell this story. A love story set in the sixties with sexual exploration, revolution, drug trips and Vietnam. Not a completely original story, but you have never seen it told quite like this before.



The movie stars a bunch of fresh faces and amazing singers. For a few of them, this is their first movie. For the more experienced ones, this is their first American movie. Littered with cameo's of household names like Bono, Joe Cocker, Selma Hayek and Eddie Izzard (Oh I wish he was a household name. He is my second favorite comedian after Ellen, trust me and rent his stand up, you wont regret it.) this movie still belongs solely to the unknowns.

The one that I haven't been able to get out of my head is the scene where T.V. Carpio sings my favorite Beatles song "I wanna hold your hand". She has a magnificent voice, but it is the twist that gets me the most. She is sitting on the bleachers of her high school in her cheerleading uniform singing this song not to the captain of the football team, but to his girlfriend one of the cheerleaders. It is an amazing scene, she walks out of the practice on her way to meet her destiny. And while she is walking and singing, she walks right through the football team while they are tackling each other and playing football.



The only one of the main characters that I know is Evan Rachel Wood, she plays Lucy. You would have seen her in "Running with scissors" or "The upside of anger". But what I know her best from is a small indie movie called "Thirteen". After seeing her in that, I knew she could act, but I had no idea she could sing. And boy, these people they cast can sing. I would have loved to see the casting process. The other main character Jude, is played by a brittish guy named Jim Sturgess and at this point I don't know whether to tell you to watch for him on the big screen or in record stores. He was awesome, and if he came out with an album, I would buy it.



I wont tell you much of the story except to tell you that I did cry once and laughed a whole lot, and at least two or three times I felt what an acid flashback must be like. If I had to give you something to compare this movie to I would say Forest Gump (story, and epic) + Moulin Rouge (music and dance) + Natural Born Killers (surrealism) + Brazil (funky twisted pchyhadelia). It is just something you should experience and I hate to say it, but you really should experience it in the theater. I am not someone who wont wait for video... in fact I usually wait for things to come to video. But there are some things that should be seen in the theater because of the immensity and scope and there is something to be said about being so immersed in a movie that you forget about the here and now.


Across the Universe is a brilliant movie. Go see it. Take a toke, sit back and be entertained.