Across the Universe (Taymor, 2007): USA
Reviewed by Richard Feilden. Viewed on DVD
In Across the Universe director Julie Taymor takes the road less often trod to create a musical. Instead of beginning with a story and having songs written to tell the tale she has taken her pick of the Beatles catalogue and crafted a plot around them. Actually crafted does not really do this film justice; something more along the lines of forced, slapped or dumped might be more appropriate. This film is at best a mess and worst actually offensive.
Set in the 60s the film is the story of Jude, a young Liverpudlian, on a quest to meet the GI who fathered him and vanished back to the US after World War II. Arriving in America as a worker on an ocean liner, he jumps ship and ends up in the company of Max, an Ivy League student who is at a loss as to what he wants to do with his life. Jude falls for Max’s sister, Lucy, but their lives are turned upside down when Max receives his draft papers and is sent off to fight in Vietnam.
That the lead romance is between characters named Jude and Lucy should give you an idea of how subtle the writers were when linking the story to the songs. Someone decided that a good link to Strawberry Fields would be to have Jude, now a graphic designer, pinning strawberries to his wall. Thus the director could show fields of strawberries. With a quick flick of the cinematic wrist they even managed a perspective shot showing those fields going on (yes, you guessed it) forever! The desire to capture the 60s zeitgeist leads to an extended drug hallucination sequence being crammed into the middle of the film. Unfortunately it does nothing at all to advance the plot, being little more than a vehicle for I am the Walrus (featuring a walrus mustachioed Bono) and Mr. Kite (which even the usually wonderful Eddie Izzard cannot save). It just sits, like a giant, soggy hash brownie, in the middle of the film and brings what little pace had been created to a crashing halt.
The worst piece of shoehorning comes with the character of Prudence. It was apparently not enough to simply have a character called Prudence in the film, but it was decided that, to completely fit with the song she would have to come out of something. So, having decided that Prudence would be gay, Taymor has her come out of… a closet. Really. An actual closet. It is at this point that the film becomes patently offensive as Prudence (who jumps from one infatuation to another, as opposed to the straight characters who seek out their true loves) disappears from the film, only to emerge as part of Mr. Kite’s circus where she has met a contortionist. The message seems to be that as a non-heterosexual she belongs there, along with all the other ‘freaks’. It really is a disturbing contrivance.
I could go on, bemoaning the weak singing of the leads (although Dana Fuchs playing the Joplin-esque Sadie has a truly incredible voice) or the cinematography that telegraphs the stories twists as though they weren’t already obvious enough, but frankly it would be a waste of time. Across the Universe is an exercise in taking the ‘sub’ out of subtext and pushing the ‘con’ firmly into contrivance. Save your time, save your money and fire up your Beatles playlist instead.
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