Across The Universe
Intriguing, but only in fits and starts, Across The Universe, the new musical film featuring only songs written by The Beatles, is a mess. The plot is hashed together with fragments from HAIR the musical and the collective album covers of Cruisin 1959 through 1968. You can probably piece the story together without ever watching the film just by using your favorite clichés of the era. Truthfully, you might be able to come up with something more interesting.
All of this, however, could be forgiven if the musical portion of the film really delivered. Bad news, the songs are just sort of okay. Only one song, I Want To Hold Your Hand, is presented in a manner that divorces it from the original allowing you to enjoy it as if for the first time and while the rest of the material doesn't always fall flat it often feels forced into the context it's sung in and fails to grab and excite the viewer. Some songs like Because and Come Together are done quite well, most are good to mediocre, and only one, For the Benefit Of Mr Kite, is truly awful. However, given the emotional weight the Beatles catalog holds for even a casual fan, this films inability to electrify smacks of squandered riches.
There is some beautiful photography in Across The Universe, but slaved to a plot that tries to go in too many directions at once the film as a whole loses cohesion and the stunning visual elements often end up standing out as little islands of interest unrelated to the millstone that is the rest of the film. A related problem is the repetitive choreography. Almost all musical films require vivid, expressive and varied movement. This film only has a couple tricks up it's sleeve and it beats them to death.
All told there's not a lot that's awful about this film, but a enough that's bland and uninteresting that you probably shouldn't bother watching it. Which is sad to report because I really wanted to love it.
All of this, however, could be forgiven if the musical portion of the film really delivered. Bad news, the songs are just sort of okay. Only one song, I Want To Hold Your Hand, is presented in a manner that divorces it from the original allowing you to enjoy it as if for the first time and while the rest of the material doesn't always fall flat it often feels forced into the context it's sung in and fails to grab and excite the viewer. Some songs like Because and Come Together are done quite well, most are good to mediocre, and only one, For the Benefit Of Mr Kite, is truly awful. However, given the emotional weight the Beatles catalog holds for even a casual fan, this films inability to electrify smacks of squandered riches.
There is some beautiful photography in Across The Universe, but slaved to a plot that tries to go in too many directions at once the film as a whole loses cohesion and the stunning visual elements often end up standing out as little islands of interest unrelated to the millstone that is the rest of the film. A related problem is the repetitive choreography. Almost all musical films require vivid, expressive and varied movement. This film only has a couple tricks up it's sleeve and it beats them to death.
All told there's not a lot that's awful about this film, but a enough that's bland and uninteresting that you probably shouldn't bother watching it. Which is sad to report because I really wanted to love it.