Across The Universe review

Across The Universe is an honorable failure. It's one thing to reach for the stars, but another to capture them. Director Julie Taymor, best known for her innovative Broadway production of The Lion King, has turned her extravagant vision once again to a musical, this time using the music of The Beatles. With wonderful songs and moments of sumptuous imagery, Across The Universe has much to admire, but ultimately the film's sprawling, unfocussed story and abundance of awkward moments prevent it fulfilling its promise.

Given a firmer hand, a more effective film lurks within the unnecessarily long time it takes to go nowhere. The script by the masterful duo of Dick Clement and Ian LaFrenais wanders aimlessly, uncertain of which direction it wants to take. Set in the Sixties, it moves between Liverpool and Greenwich Village. At its heart is a love story, but Across The Universe devotes much of its time to the politically turbulent period of American history, with the civil and racial unrest, and the Vietnam War, which it uses to draw parallels with the current war in Iraq.

The drug culture of the Sixties is also reflected in a number of the hallucinogenic musical numbers. The best of which involves Bono as Dr Robert, a Ken Kesey figure and leader of a busload of Merry Pranksters, singing I Am The Walrus. Another highlight is Eddie Izzard as circus leader Mr Kite in a surreal version of Being For The Benefit Of Mr Kite. Many of the renditions of the Beatles songs are effective, especially the incomparable Joe Cocker's Come Together, but without an effective story to link them, the film is essentially a series of music videos.

For what it is, the plot centers on Jude (Jim Sturgess) a young man who leaves his home and mother in Liverpool and heads to America in search of the father he never knew. Once Stateside, he meets up with the privileged and carefree Ivy League student Max (Joe Anderson) and his younger sister Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). Jude's crush on Lucy develops into more when her boyfriend is killed in Vietnam. The war becomes a further issue when Max's airy life comes down to earth with a thud when he is called up.

To this core trio are added a number of varyingly colorful characters who contribute little to the story but whose inclusion is primarily to provide stronger voices than Jude, Lucy and Max are able to bring to their numbers. Sturgess possesses the twinkle once seen in the eyes of a young David Essex, but none of the characters has enough substance to warrant much concern for their fortunes. It's a film that's as frustrating as it is courageous. For every wondrous moment, there's an equally exasperating one. Great songs, though.

Kevin Murphy