Across The Universe

[2DualsNotEnough]

I saw this movie last night.
Just to begin with,I think that having Beatles songs in your movie is almost always a colossal mistake.Ever see "Five Corners" with Jody Foster?The first shot in the film is a darkened street,and "In My Life",the original Beatles version is playing.It took me back to the first time my mother played 1962-66 and I heard the song for the first time(or at least processed it for the first time).I thought of the first time I played Rubber Soul,I thought about watching Monday Night Football and hearing about John Lennon,and putting that song on right after that.And thats all I thought about throughout the length of that film.Congratulations,you just sabatoged your own movie.
I think the director,Julie Taymor,made some really good choices.She chose to avoid the original recordings.She chose to have her actors sing the songs on the soundstage in most cases.She chose T Bone Burnett to produce the songs.She chose more obscure songs in many cases,rather than the hits.She used the storyline and characters to better frame the musical numbers,rather than the other way around.
T Bone Burnett did some interesting things to a lot of the songs.I Want To Hold Your Hand is a slow,plaintive,sorrowful ballad here.A Little Help From My Friends starts as the Beatles arraingment,as it were,and then becomes the Joe Cocker arraingment later into the song.It helps that they have Joe himself playing several characters in the number.Come Together is turned into a blusey number here to very good effect.
The musical numbers themselves go from inspired to just plain head scratchingly bizarre.An army indunction musical number is done to I Want You,sung by,among others,an animated Uncle Sam,and the Shes So Heavy part is sung by a group of troops in the jungle,carrying a big Statue Of Liberty But some of numbers are quite good.Bono,playing Dr. Robert,is a middle aged Timothy Leary type,and the cast goes cross country with him while he sings I Am The Walrus.My favorite is the scene where Jude and Lucy first connect with each other,in a crowded bowling alley,and he sings Ive Just Seen A Face.Its perfect.
Overall,the Pschedelia gets a little heavy handed at times,and the storybecomes muddled,and the movie is overlong,to be sure.When I first saw the previews I posted something to the effect that it made me want to throw up,fearing the worst.What we got,I think,is an interesting experiment,but not a very satisfying film,IMHO.
Wow,that was a long way for nothing,huh?
Jimmy