Across the Universe

When the preview for Across the Universe, Julie Taymor's Beatles musical, played in front of Spiderman 3, I thought they absolutely missed their audience. And it was a really bad idea. Even the preview wasn't very good.

But the movie, now having seen it at a second run theater in Minneapolis, is a lot of fun. The music is (naturally) great. Joe Cocker, Bono, and the cast make you fall for the Beatles all over again. The story is full, the music adds to it, and some of the scenes work just perfectly.

Sometimes there are throwaway jokes and lines that fall a bit flat, because they are too obviously quoting lines. Working in phrases like "when I'm 64" and "she came in through the bathroom window" can get a little tired.

But there is real joy here, I think, in its creativity and storytelling. I'm pretty tired of stories about the "tumultuous 60s" and Vietnam, but this one does it pretty dang well. Largely by avoiding the drugs as a key part of its storyline.

(The tradition tumultuous 60s stories being those that start with innocent kids experimenting with sex and drugs before the war plucks them all off into the convenient roles of solider, hippy, college student, black militant, draft dodger, etc; this one handles the period the best, I think.)

I'd recommend it as a rental, if you like the Beatles. It gets better as it goes along too. Particularly Let it Be, Come Together, Dear Prudence, and Revolution.