DVD Release Date:  February 5, 2008
Theatrical Release Date:  September 14, 2007
Rating:  PG-13 (for some drug content, nudity, sexuality, violence and language)
Genre:  Drama
Run Time:  133 min.
Director:  Julie Taymor
Actors:  Evan Rachel Wood, Martin Luther, Dana Fuchs, Jim Sturgess, Joe Anderson, T.V. Carpio

EDITOR’S NOTE:  The following review contains discussion of adult subject matter that is not appropriate for young readers.  Parents, please exercise caution.

In this musical homage to the Beatles, it’s the late ‘60s and Jude (Jim Sturgess), a working class limey from Liverpool, heads to the U.S. to search for his birth father.  He finds dear old dad in Princeton, N.J., but the reunion isn’t what he expected.  So Jude befriends a wealthy drop-out named Max (Joe Anderson), and the pair heads to New York City.

They move in with a Janis Joplin-like bar singer (Dana Fuchs), her Jimi Hendrix-style boyfriend/guitar player (Martin Luther) and later, an Asian lesbian cheerleader named Prudence (T.V. Carpio) who crawls in through the bathroom window and stays. Jude falls in love with Max’s younger sister, Lucie (Evan Rachel Wood), after her boyfriend dies in Vietnam.  Lucie has just graduated from high school and is also searching for meaning.  Soon, the three have joined the counter cultural movement and are barhopping, dropping acid and protesting the war. 

Like most musicals, Across the Universe is short on narrative and big on song.  And it’s very good song.  We’re treated to many new renditions of old Beatles hits.  When Jude leaves England, he sings “All My Loving” to his girlfriend.  Lusting after another high school cheerleader, Prudence sings “I Wanna Hold Your Hand.”  As Jude works on his art, he throws strawberries at a canvas and belts out “Strawberry Fields Forever.”  Not unexpectedly, Max also sings, “Hey Jude.”  

They’re all nicely done, and it’s clear that most of the actors were chosen for their voices.  Sturgiss and Anderson, as the male leads, are great vocalists, and Fuchs does a fantastic job with her songs as well.  Luther is also good, and even Wood holds her own, with songs like “It Won’t Be Long” (as she waits for her doomed fiancé).

Then there are the cameos.  U2’s Bono appears (in a wig) as Robert, a drugged cult leader, singing “I Am the Walrus,” as psychedelic colors transform everything into a tie-dyed universe.  Joe Cocker sings a plaintive version of “Let It Be” during street riots.  The song concludes in church, as a full choir mourns a young boy’s death.  And, rather lamentably, Eddie Izzard offers a hallucinogenic version of “For the Benefit of Mr. Kite,” sung in circus makeup and costume amidst oversized, dancing blue puppets.