Movie Review: Across the Universe (2007)

A quick review of Across the Universe, a musical I rented a few days ago just because Across the Universe is one of my favorite songs of all-time. Pretty solid movie overall, definitely flawed, but entertaining. A simple good old boy meets girl story in a relatively ambitious musical to the tunes of 33 Beatles’ song. The plot plays out in the 1960′s amid the Vietnam war protests and civil rights movement. The cast is outstanding with a group of relatively unknowns, I must admit, and cameos by the likes of Bono and Joe Cocker. Evan Rachel Wood must be commended for her excellent work in what may be a breakout performance as Lucy. She is already one of very few actresses that is actually able to act, sing, and dance equally well. One of the main concern when watching a musical is that the singing won’t do justice to the original tracks and artist. However this was not an issue at all in Across the Universe, indeed some of the scenes looked more like parts of a music video than from a motion picture . On the negative side, a few really odd scenes tend to sag down the movie about halfway through and the film never recovers its lost momentum. I definitely lost attention to what was happening on the screen for a while at some point. Anyways, to conclude, not a waste of time or money to rent it for a night. Don’t let its imperfections get to you, and just take the ride across the universe.

B