ACROSS THE UNIVERSE / Julie Taymor (2007)

September 28th, 2007 by Scott Marks

ACROSS THE UNIVERSE (2007)

Directed by Julie Taymor

Written by Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais

Starring: Evan Rachel Wood. Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson, Dana Fuchs, Joe Cocker (in no less than 3 roles), Eddie Izzard, Bono & Salma Hayak

Running Time: 131 min.

Aspect Ratio:

Rating:

Julie Taymor’s Across the Universe wants nothing more than to be another Tommy or Hair, yet it barely has what it takes to surpass the Bee Gee’s fiasco Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Heart’s Club Band.

Normally I’ll concede a good idea in hope of finding at least one positive thing to say before performing my critical disembowelment. Films dependent on Beatles cover versions to help sell their stories should never progress beyond a treatment.

The very thought is hateful.

Any and all attempts have only resulted in embarrassment for their participants. Look at the meteoric film careers the Brothers Gibb and John Denver had after Sgt. Pepper’s. And as Sean Penn so capably proved, only a drooling retardate could find pleasure in the soundtrack to I Am Sam.

Most of Taymor’s period detail (and narrative drive) stems from movies and TV rather than actual life experience. Every Englishman in the 60s worked every day ‘cept Saturday night and Sunday morning in a coal mine. Back in the States, it’s all sock hops and poodle skirts when it comes to depicting teen life.

This may work when parading Disney giraffes up and down a Broadway theater aisle, but when blown up forty-feet wide, the lack of truth will out.
In Across the Universe, it’s Evan Rachel Wood that gets knocked down a few pegs. As Lucy, Ms. Wood, the brightest young actress of her generation, looks the part of the brainy girl next door, but who is she kidding? We’re talking Marilyn Manson’s main squeeze, not the Sandra Dee type that Bobby Darin found so nice to come home to.

After a down and dirty string of provocative performances in Thirteen, Down in the Valley and Pretty Persuasion, Wood can no sooner convince an audience that she’s a goody two shoes than DeNiro did playing dumb in Stanley and Iris or Awakenings. He’s too smart and she’s too dangerous.

As Jude, Jim Sturgess looks McCartney and acts Lennon, but I don’t think his character was supposed to represent one of the Beatles in their teens. Ms. Taymor is more interested in clever ways to name her characters after Beatles songs or incorporate a few lyrics into the dialog. When Maxwell goes off to war, we are spared his death and the subsequent silver hammer that should have come down upon his head.

A couple of the music videos, particularly Uncle Sam’s animated rendition of I Want You, work and there is an Asian chick so everyone can point to the screen and yell “Yoko!”

It never should have gone past the 90 minute mark. (Was Sgt. Pepper’s really 113 minutes?!?!?) Set decoration as subject is as rare as it is hard to pull and this ain’t Rear Window, The Ladies’ Man or Exorcist II: The Heretic.

Unless you’re desperate for visual stimulation, don’t walk across the street to see Across the Universe.