Across the Universe (2007)
-You’re either on the bus or off the bus.
It’s quite odd, but I seem to keep accidentally encountering Jim Sturgess in my reviews this fall. I have to admit, I was completely unfamiliar with him until I saw The Other Boleyn Girl. He made a minor, albeit, favorable impression on me. Then, I was watching 21 and thought he looked familiar. Oh yeah, it was the same guy. That movie made very little impression on me at all. Now, I’ve encountered him a third time, and again it wasn’t intentional. I had heard of Evan Rachel Wood, but until I reviewed The Life Before Her Eyes a few months ago I don’t think I’d actually watched her perform. When I chose to review Across the Universe, the decision was made near the beginning of the semester and was entirely based upon seeing the trailer for the movie a couple of times. I’d found it intriguing and visually appealing. I learned that it was being directed by Julie Taymor, famous for her choreography of The Lion King on Broadway, and featured the music of the Beatles in a Moulin-Rouge sort of way. Sweetening the deal was the involvement of U2’s Bono. I knew it was a film I wanted to see, but imagine my surprise to encounter young Mr. Sturgess once again. I’m glad as this is by far the best movie I’ve seen him in so far, and he’s good in it.
Sturgess plays Jude, a working class lad from Liverpool, who leaves his mother and girlfriend behind to take ship for the United States. He wants to find his father, who left his mother while she was pregnant with Jude. He has a lead that he works at an Ivy League University, and so incorrectly assumes that his father is a professor. It turns out that the man is a janitor with another family. Jude is an embarrassment and inconvenience for him. Still, while at the college, Jude quickly makes friends with Max who invites him home for Thanksgiving dinner with the folks. Max’s family doesn’t agree with Max’s attitude toward life, but Jude finds Max’s sister, Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), irresistible. Max and Jude take off for a bohemian life in New York and are later joined by Lucy.
Lucy and Jude’s love story plays out over the tumultuous events of the 1960s and so it seems only natural that the soundtrack of their lives be the Beatles. I’ve always been more of a Rolling Stones fan, myself, and usually am either annoyed or bored by covers. With that in mind, I have to say I was completely enthralled by this musical extravaganza. If I had only listened to the soundtrack divorced from the life performances of the actors, and with the songs completely out of context, then I doubt that I would have enjoyed the soundtrack much. Watching the songs being performed was an entirely different experience. Sturgess and Wood are both wonderful actors and have beautiful voices. These are not merely good actors who can carry a tune – the kind that I usually am lenient towards. These are the rare genuine article – good actors who have musical talent. The familiar songs felt new and fresh, the highest compliment I can give to such an endeavor.
My favorite musical moments, though, upon reflection were with Sadie (Dana Fuchs), Jude and Max’s landlady, and her band. Sadie symbolizes Janis Joplin and Fuchs wisely understood that for the part she needed to be fearless and uninhibited in her singing. She goes all out which is the only way to invoke the spirit of Joplin. Her guitarist/lover in the movie, Jo Jo (Martin Luther McCoy), is meant to represent Jimi Hendrix. I didn’t feel he was quite as successful in capturing Hendrix, but McCoy was fine on his own merits.
I was looking forward to seeing Bono in this movie and I wasn’t disappointed. I have no idea if Bono can actually act, and this movie doesn’t really ask him to. It does give him a persona which is all he really needs. He has the charisma, the swagger, and the attitude. He uses them to make his character, Dr. Robert, lively, eccentric and memorable. I wasn’t really sold on the handlebar mustache, but since he was singing “I Am the Walrus” it was appropriate.
Taymor uses the gift for visuals she had developed on Broadway to outstanding effect here. The movie is brimming with trippy, psychedelic imagery…bizarre at times but never boring. She never loses the center of the movie, though, Jude and Lucy’s journey. I can’t wait to see what she turns her hand to next.
