Across the Universe

Who needs a plot when you can arrange 33 songs by the Beatles in random order and have a series of talented performers do them in a bunch of loosely connected music videos revue style? This is very similar to Mamma Mia, a hastily assembled collage of memorable pop tunes lacking a memorable or even serviceable story. There’s also the triteness of Forrest Gump, our small band of youths just so happen to take part in every single major movement and moment of the turbulent 60s.

Across the Universe is only as good as any singular moment since there’s not a clichéd story that Taymor doesn’t use, nor is there a character that exists beyond a mere sketch. Hell, most of these characters feel like they’re named or brought in just to provide an excuse for another song. There’s our leads Jude and Lucy, Max, Sadie, Prudence, and a nearly uncountable number of groan inducing puns and references. Well, thank god for the soundtrack at the very least.

Like many of Taymor’s film, Across the Universe is both aggressively literal-minded and a potent example of ambition exceeding execution. The chaos of Prudence wandering through football practice while singing “I Want to Hold Your Hand” is a nifty idea, until you realize that it doesn’t look anything like football practice but very heavily choreographed dancing. While a bowl of strawberries is the inspiration for, ugh, do I even have to finish this sentence? You damn well know what song it is.

What’s shocking is how many of the sequences demonstrate Taymor modulating her artistic impulses. “It Won’t Be Long” works for the pop-rock girlishness and joy that Evan Rachel Wood invests into it. While “I’ve Just Seen a Face” primarily takes place in a bowling alley and effectively visualizes the thrill of falling in love and “Helter Skelter” uses simplistic special effects and Dana Fuchs’ throat-shredding howl to maximum effect. The best of these moments is “Let It Be,” which contrasts race riots with the Vietnam War, takes the gospel underpinnings of the track and dials them up to eleven. It’s a moment of deeply felt emotional honesty and rawness, a moment that Across the Universe could have used more of.

These provide a nice counter-balance to the moments where Taymor goes full-throttle visually audacious. “Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite” is a psychedelic collage of puppetry, vintage circus advertisements, and asymmetrical perspectives. Oh, and Eddie Izzard cameos as Mr. Kite leading a dance troupe of Blue Meanies from Yellow Submarine. “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)” finds Uncle Sam, G.I. Joes, and newly drafted young men carrying the Statue of Liberty across a clearly artificial Vietnam jungle in a politically loaded sequence. Then there’s “Happiness is a Warm Gun,” performed in a hospital with a multiplying Salma Hayek dressed as a sexy nurse. These moments stand out for the right reasons, and work just as effectively as short films in their own right.

The actors are valiant throughout, performing all of their songs with conviction and holding their own against a series of guest stars. Joe Cocker, one of the great interpreters of the Beatles, shows up in a triptych of performances during “Come Together,” it’s cute and fun to see him having fun with the classic. Bono proves a bit distracting as Dr. Robert during “I Am the Walrus,” mainly for the strange speaking voice he adopts and hammy acting. It’s a pity that Dana Fuchs and Martin Luther McCoy aren’t given enough to perform, despite being clearly brought in to act as proxies for Janis Joplin and a hybrid of Marvin Gaye and Jimi Hendrix, they have the best musical chops out of the major players. Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson, and Evan Rachel Wood are all uniformly solid, and all of them display strong singing voices. The entire cast harmonizes beautifully on “Because,” “Dear Prudence,” and “All You Need Is Love.”

Taymor is too idiosyncratic of an artist to leave Across the Universe totally unsuccessful as an exercise, but not enough of the material engages with the songs in any meaningful way. She clearly had a lot of ideas about how to visual them, and it is audacious in its grand ambitions. But ambition can only go so far when it’s tethered to so much silliness and excessive style. Taymor is a visionary artist, but I wonder if she knows how to pivot her considerable gifts and never-ending imagination for the more intimate style that filmmaking provides.