My Favourite Movies: Across The Universe

I don’t think I’d heard about this movie until we caught the trailer at our local Multiplex. We watched as Jim Sturgess sang on a lonely beach and CQ and I turned to each other and said “Yes, we need to see this” and we did, at least twice and possibly three times. I also bought the DVD the day it came out and also picked up the soundtrack before that.

The story is a pretty standard boy meets girl, boy loses girl and boy gets girl back. Sturgess plays Jude, a Liverpool dock worker searching for his American GI father. Sailing to the US he discovers that all is not as expected but in the process bumps into Max (played by Joe Anderson) who takes Jude home to see his family for Thanksgiving. Enter Lucy (played by the drop dead gorgeous Evan Rachel Wood) Max’s sister who Jude falls for almost at first sight. When Max drops out of Princeton Jude accompanies him to New York and becomes part of the emerging Hippy scene there. Meanwhile Lucy’s boyfriend is killed in Vietnam and Max is drafted. Without giving too much of the story away the film follows the main characters through the turbulent 60’s with race riots, Vietnam protests, student unrest, drug culture and everything we’re now familiar with when the 1960’s are mentioned. But the clever thing – apart from superb acting all round – is the fact that the whole interweaving story is held together by Beatles songs – and not just as a background soundtrack either.

All of the cast sing and are pretty good at it too. Sturgess does a creditable Liverpool accent which, although a little put on at times, at least had the advantage of being consistent throughout the film even when he got angry. Not only did some cast member sing on stage – in particular Dana Fuchs as Sadie and the amazing Martin Luther as Jo-Jo – but other would burst into song to explain their emotional state or to move the story along. There are even several impressively choreographed dance numbers (most memorable for me early on in a bowling alley) and later on some impressive drug induced fantasy episodes. One thing that struck me early on was a set piece song by T V Carpio (playing a character called Prudence – who at one point came in through the bathroom window which had me in stitches) who, singing ‘I Want to Hold Your Hand’ as a High School cheerleader surprised us both by being revealed as being a lesbian love song. After the initial surprise – we thought she was originally singing about one of the Football players – we both burst out laughing and fell in love with the interpretation which, in my opinion as both a Liverpudlian and a Beatles fan, was better than the original. 

You probably don’t have to be a Beatles fan to enjoy the movie but it would probably help – not only because of the 20+ Beatles songs scattered throughout the film but also to the numerous Beatles references from character names, nods to Beatles emblems (Apple in particular), lyrics and song titles used as part of normal conversation and much besides. Made by people who obviously have a great love of the era and the music that made it so special this is a stunning film with good acting, great music, political comment (it was the 60’s after all) and, as if it needed anything else, a solid storyline. Personally I loved it (as did my friend CQ) and could quite happily watch it a hundred times and still enjoy it as much each time…. And I’m not just saying that because I’m from Liverpool.