Across the Universe | Two Word Heap

November 20th, 2007 | Grant Tingley

Rating: This rating is here to state that it is over rated… but at times this has the best song/dance/visual moments ever in film.

*the above has zero hyperbole

What is good about it:

For the most part, the cast is fantastic… every person has depth and unique qualities (bonus points for using ‘q’ twice in such close proximity) that it is easy to watch and like most characters in this flick (and there are a lot).

The acting of Joe Anderson (Max) was quite well done. His character of the Princeton student who has better things to do with his life have been overplayed and overdone a million times, but he is able to bring a new dimension to the character… a dimension I would almost call a layer of controlled chaos. He wasn’t in search of what made him happy, he just was happy, and not afraid to allow himself to be that way. Normally with characters like this they are burned out and filled with angst, neither description applied to his interpretation of Max.

Something else that was particularly strong was I felt that it was easy to distinguish between all the voices when singing… normally when the singer isn’t on screen it is tough to know who is singing, but the unique qualities and character driven vocal choices solidified the individuality of each and just added that much more to the strength of the film.

All the above is strong, but really the strongest and greatest feature of this film is the ‘music video’ esque numbers… wait, that is a disservice for NO music video could be as great as these numbers were… The greatest of which was an incredible dance sequence for “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” with moving floors and rooms, it was one of the most incredible things I have ever seen… and barely a computer generated graphic was in sight…

Other great numbers of note were “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!” (performed by Eddie Izzard), “Happiness Is a Warm Gun” (performed by Joe Anderson and Salma Hayek), and ’’I’ve Just Seen a Face” (erformed by Jim Sturgess), which turns into an epic moderately cheesy dance in a bowling alley… ok it’s really cheesy but it is still fun…

Here is a link for a bootleg version of “I Want You (she’s so heavy)”. Click over if you want to see how it is done… warning… it is moderate to crappy in quality…
HERE

What is bad about it:
Really there isn’t much wrong with it, though there is ONE BIG THING wrong with it… They try to squeeze too much into the flick… the plot is long and confusing, and there is way too many characters in the flick. Dana Fuchs (Sadie, an up-and-coming singer) and Martin Luther (Jojo, her guitar player who also lost his son during riots… which is a scene completely out of place in the movie) were two completely unnecessary characters, and their love story just clutters an already busy flick.

The need to edit the storyline was apparent throughout the flick, and the movie screams of people being in love with all their ideas and unable to sacrifice one or two of them for the greater good of the whole.

Epilogue
This is a stylized picture that succeeds in just a few more ways than it fails, and the stunning song and dance numbers are worth wading through the convoluted plot lines during the “TALKIE” times…

Notable Cast and Crew
Leads:
Jim Sturgess
Joe Anderson
Evan Rachel Wood (Running with Scissors, The Upside of Anger, Thirteen, and Marilyn Manson’s girlfriend)

Cameos:
Joe Cocker
Bono
Eddie Izzard
Salma Hayek

Crew:
Dir: Julie Taymor (Frida, and Titus)