Created 2007..09.12 Updated 2007.10.06

Across the Universe a Heavy Trip by Robin Rowe 2007.09.12 3 stars *** An artistic Liverpool lad falls in love with a beautiful peace activist American girl while her brother goes to fight in Vietnam in this psychedelic Beatles anti-war musical set in the sixties.

A young artist, Jude, leaves his job as a dockyard worker in Liverpool to find his father. While in America, Jude falls in love with Lucy, a sheltered teenager committed to peace activism. Living together, the star-crossed lovers are swept into drugs, anti-war protests and the Greenwich Village counterculture. Lucy's brother is drafted and goes to Vietnam. Their friends, struggling rock singers, have their own journey.

Jim Sturgess as Jude, and Evan Rachel Wood as Lucy, give outstanding performances. It's hard to imagine anyone besides Wood for the role of naïve flower child pacifist Lucy. Sturgess gives a convincing portrayal of a mixed-up Liverpool lad drifting in America. Joe Anderson is Lucy's brother Max, who chooses Vietnam over Canada.

Across the Universe contrasts "normal" life in sixties America with the killing fields of Vietnam. The original story uses thirty groundbreaking songs of the sixties…including "Hey Jude," "I Am the Walrus," and "All You Need is Love". It's Hair with Apocalypse Now, a dash of Monty Python, and back-to-back Beatles songs. Writer-director Julie Taymor created the Broadway hit musical The Lion King and the movies Frida and Titus. Across the Universe is a beautiful film, but dark. Much darker than Hair. Beautifully lensed and expertly directed, but at times the film feels like an adapted stage musical rather than a script written expressly for film. Writers Dick Clement & Ian La Frenais also wrote Flushed Away.

With a generous assist from the songs of the Beatles, the film conveys a whimsical gritty mood. The gratuitous smoking is in keeping with the sixties, but living in the present made me concerned for the actors' health. There's an underwater sex scene and topless nudity, also very sixties. The clammy water women and android army sergeants are weird and disturbing. The movie ends on a high note and has marvelous production values. This dark drama anti-war romance is determined to evoke a realistic feeling for the 1960s, whether that's free love, war, a bad LSD trip or a happy memory. It succeeds.

Sony Pictures
Release: Limited 9.14.07, Expanded 9.21.07
Rating: PG-13 for some drug content, nudity, sexuality, violence and language
Running Time: 2 hrs. 13 min.

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