Raised by his single mom, Liverpudlian Jude (Jim Sturgess) escapes to America to search for the father he’s never met. A stranger in a strange country, fate hooks Jude up with Princeton student Max (Joe Anderson), a free-spirited soul with a beautiful younger sister, Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). Max serves as Jude’s guide to America and the twosome journey to New York City to expand their minds.
Jude and Max wind up sharing a flat with an assortment of interesting characters including a Janis Joplin-esque singer named Sadie (Dana Fuchs), guitar wizard Jo-Jo (Martin Luther McCoy) who’s a dead-ringer for Jimi Hendrix, and Prudence (TV Carpio), an ex-cheerleader lesbian who can’t find love.
Because Across the Universe is, at heart, a boy meets girl story with the Vietnam War, hippies, and tripping out at its center, Lucy and Jude are meant to hook up. And they do, but not without a few roadblocks. Lucy lost her high school sweetheart to the war and now she’s out to make a difference by actively protesting America’s involvement in Vietnam. Jude, on the other hand, is an artist more into beauty and love than causes. All you need is love, according to The Beatles, and love is what it will take to keep the threesome safe from negative influences determined to change their world.
Jim Sturgess reminds me of a young Ewan McGregor. Both have an undeniable, indefinable charm onscreen, both can sing, and both share the ability to appeal to either sex equally. Sturgess’ Jude is the soul of Across the Universe and it’s mostly through Sturgess’ storytelling that we’re able to fall in love with Taymor’s visually stunning, exhilaratingly bizarre universe. A relative newcomer to feature films, Sturgess appears to have exuberantly embraced the spirit of the film and delivers a breakout performance.
Joe Anderson makes Max into more than a one-note college drop-out snared by Uncle Sam to go off to war. Anderson’s terrific, going from devil-may-care college boy to a damaged veteran of a horrific war. Equally as impressive is Evan Rachel Wood as the lovely Lucy. Who knew Wood could sing like an angel? And talk about chemistry… Wood and Sturgess have it in spades.
Fuchs, McCoy, and Carpio provide not only strong musical support but also have the acting chops to match their considerable musical talents. Also getting into the fun are Joe Cocker, Bono doing I Am the Walrus proud, and Eddie Izzard talk/singing the show-stopping Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite number while backed by dancing Blue Meanies.
The Bottom Line
Let It Be sung first by a young boy caught in the middle of the Detriot riots and then picked up by a gospel choir at his funeral literally gave me the chills up and down my spine. And the clever - and strange - version of Strawberry Fields Forever stands out as it serves to take the film into darker territory. But if there was one moment of Across the Universe, one sequence that stands above the rest, it has to be the staging of Max’s induction into the Army done to the tune of I Want You (She’s So Heavy). That awe-inspiring blend of choreography and music makes a powerful long-lasting impression.
Across the Universe begins with innocence and ends with the three leads having experienced the turbelence of the times and come out still willing and able to rejoice in song. Audiences willing to let the timely and timeless film flow over them will find themselves wanting to join in the chorus and lend their own voices to this ambitious, passionate celebration of love, life and The Beatles.
GRADE: A
Across the Universe is rated PG-13 for some drug content, nudity, sexuality, violence and language.
