With ACROSS THE UNIVERSE, Julie Taymor has taken her considerable visionary chops, her flair for innovative story telling, her zest for the theatricality of moments, and chucked them out the window. What may have sounded good during brainstorming sessions fuelled by Nicaraguan ganja falls spectacularly flat onscreen. ACROSS THE UNIVERSE sucks.

Which is really a shame because the commercials herald an exciting, trippy experience, and surely Taymor, with her poet's eye for the surreal, is capable of so much more. Written by Dick Clement and Ian LaFrennis and directed by Taymor, ACROSS THE UNIVERSE ambitiously seeks to capture the spirit of the 60s zeitgeist for a new generation of viewers, complete with a wall to wall soundtrack of Beatles songs (Impressively arranged by Elliot Goldenthal and T Bone Burnett) sung by the film's attractive, likable cast. While this concept certainly affords Taymor and company a few moments of psychedelic inspiration, this does little to overcome the film's static, Cliffs Notes version of history and oversimplified characters. A much better, through the looking glass metaphor for the 60s was accomplished with "Pleasantville" almost 10 years ago, and they play "Across the Universe" there, too.

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE starts well. Jude (The charming Jim Sturgess, who as the film progresses resembles Wings era Paul McCartney) sits alone on a beach. As the camera pans in for a medium close up, he turns to face audiences and launches into a plaintive a capella version of "Girl." For Beatles fans this may prove to be an overpowering moment. The girl in question is Lucy (The enormously talented Evan Rachel Wood). The driving narrative thrust of the film centers on the history of their relationship. How Jude, a headstrong Liverpool scouse, crosses the Atlantic in search of the father who abandoned him and meets Lucy through her brother Max (Joe Anderson). How they fall in love in New York City after Lucy's boyfriend is killed in Vietnam. How their love is cemented amidst the backdrop of the counterculture and then complicated (Ironically) by Lucy's involvement in the peace movement and Jude's lack of a green card.

One of the greatest flaws in the film is that this central love story isn't particularly interesting. It helps that Jude and Lucy express their feelings through the greatest pop music ever recorded (The sequence where Lucy's longings are made manifest through "If I Fell" will touch your heart), but any emotional involvement viewers may have is supplied thoroughly by the songs, not the characters. Worse, the supporting cast is there to evoke thinly disguised versions of real people. Sadie (Dana Fuchs), who takes in all the principal characters in her bohemian flat, reminds one of Janis Joplin even if she resembles Joan Osbourne. Her lover Jojo (Martin Luther), a guitar wiz from Detroit, channels Jimi Hendrix. Their relationship fares even worse than that of Lucy and Jude.

There are some memorable set pieces. A funky rendition of "Come Together" which accompanies Jojo's arrival in New York soars when pedestrians in business suits begin dancing on the sidewalk. Max's foray at a draft board set to "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" is exhilarating in its surreal execution. A cameo by Bono as a Timothy Leary type singing "I Am the Walrus" is amazing. It is here viewers get some semblance of Taymor the risk taker going for cinematic broke and scoring. But there are also some laughably bad sequences as the "With a Little Help From My Friends" number set at Max's university, and the "I Just Saw A Face" performance set at a bowling alley which unfortunately draws comparisons to a similar sequence from "Grease 2" and grounds the momentum to a crashing halt. Eventually viewers will find themselves waiting for which Beatles song appears next instead of what happens in the story, which does little to help Taymor's cause.

The young actors all do a fine job of tapping into their inner American Idol and tackling the songs. But when you think of it, even the absurd Stars on 45 couldn't mangle the Beatles canon that much. But ACROSS THE UNIVERSE eventually loses itself in the music and its thematic direction suffers as a result. Any rudimentary approach to the subject of the 60s makes mention that the decade of so much accomplishment and hopes ended disastrously (Hell, the Beatles broke up!). Any such sentiments are hinted at but not investigated, which may have heightened the film's dramatic punch. Much has been made of the battle between Taymor and the film's studio over final cut. Perhaps Taymor attempted to steer ACROSS THE UNIVERSE in such a direction, but was vetoed. Regardless, the finished product scores in the ambition department but crashes as an overall film. Tune in, turn on, drop dead from eventual boredom at ACROSS THE UNIVERSE.





Recommended:
No

Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Suitable for Children up Ages 8