My wife and I are both firm fans of The Beatles so when trailers for Across the Universe began to appear we were somewhat intrigued. This looked rather lavish and from what we were shown on the trailer there were some pretty decent renditions of Beatles classics on offer. Somehow we never made it to a cinema showing, but last night we finally picked up the DVD to see what we had been missing.


The Movie:

Across the Universe is a rather strange musical set to what I want to call a "backdrop" of Beatles music, but that wouldn't really be accurate. The Fab Four's famous tunes are instead the driving force behind the story which feels as though at has been hammered out with a mind to include as many numbers as is possible while still maintaining some shreds of logical plot. To begin with we are introduced to young "Jude" played by Jim Sturgess who actually looks a little bit like late 60's era Paul McCartney, complete with varying degrees of shavedness. As with Jude, the supporting cast all have Beatles song themed names like Lucy, Rita, Maxwell, Dr Robert and so forth.

While serenading his girlfriend with a more than decent rendition of All My Loving, Jude says goodbye to merry old England to seek his fortune in the USA. Most of the songs from the first 30 minutes of the film are pulled directly from With the Beatles, their second album (or "Meet the Beatles", the first Album in the US which is a little different) and as the scenes in the US first flash onto the screen we're given a confusing performance of I Want to Hold Your Hand (appropriately, The Beatles breakout hit in the US, written specifically with US success in mind). I think the female singer had the hots for Lucy, but I couldn't be certain. As the film moves along we move into the Beatles less naive, carefree later works which shadow the mood of the film.

While many of the numbers are more than suitable in their quality, some of them are awful. There's an utterly forgettable take on Revolution late in the piece and Bono (who appears here along with a plethora of cameos, including Eddie Izzard and Salma Hayek) should really stick to his own music - his version of I am the Walrus left me feeling dirty and uncomfortable.

So here I am, midway through my review and I am not really sure where to go with it. It feels a bit like the movie to be honest. Behind the rather cheap lifting of Beatles music there's not a lot of substance. Jude goes to England, gets involved with a girl and art. Meanwhile, the Vietnam war and her activism looms as a source of disagreement. And that's pretty much the movie. If you've seen the trailer you know almost the entire story from a few bits of key scenes. 

Sturgess and Even Rachel Wood (Lucy) are a handsome pair, but besides the fleet of cameos, the supporting cast is extremely weak. Perhaps the worst of which being "Sadie". Despite her name and the Beatles connotations, Sadie doesn't really do anything all that controversial or troubling. There's no real "breaking of the rules" and she doesn't ever seem that likeable. Her songs are also drab, gassy versions of the originals, completely unsuited to her self-important Joplin posturing. Oh! Darling requires a really powerful, emotional voice and this actress simply couldn't pull it off.

Many people are going to be expecting something really uplifting, deep and magical from this film, and perhaps some will find it so, but for me this was just an excuse to sing some Beatles songs and film some strange imagery. Sort of like a latter-day version of the timeless embarrassment that was The Magical Mystery Tour (film). The plot is nothing but a flimsy framework for the songs and by the end even the most ardent Beatles fan must surely tire of the fanboy references such as "How did she get in? Oh she came in through the bathroom window". Douglas Adams used that up years ago in his Dirk Gently series but it worked there because it was meant as a joke rather than a "Hey, *nudge*, did you get that very obvious reference with her climing on screen through the bathroom window? Oh, you didn't? That's OK, we will get one of the characters to very obviously say that's what happened."


The DVD:

Already slashed to under half price on Amazon, this comes with the standard features and bonuses, director's commentary, deleted scenes, mini featurette documentaries about the music and so forth. There's also some bits showing rehearsals and some extended performances of some of the numbers. Sound quality and video quality are fine.


The Long and Short of it All:

Across the Universe is a tolerable waste of time that's best used as background noise while you are doing something else. It isn't really that much different from listening to a CD of Beatles cover bands. Instead of the songs reflecting a coherant and compelling plot, the happenings in the film are merely a scaffold laced with cues for more and more songs. If you loved the stage version of Mamma Mia! and you like Beatles music then you are probably going to love this, because the feel is much the same (minus the comedy).

This is a title about which I feel most people are going to have to make up their own mind. For me, this barely rates above a middling two stars out of five.

Recommended:
No

Viewing Format: DVD