Across the Universe

Jude (Jim Sturgess) is a doc worker in Liverpool in the late sixties. He loves his girlfriend but needs to leave the country for a little while to find his father. Dad is a janitor at Princeton University. After a brief meeting, where his dad actually turns out to be an okay guy with a family of his own (he'd never known about Jude), they part ways. Jude's chance encounter with Max (Joe Anderson) brings him into a world of privilege that is a far cry from home. Coming home for Thanksgiving, Max introduces Jude to his sister Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood), whom Jude falls for quickly. It's not long before Max drops out of college and everyone's having a great time living in a New York apartment with a large cross section of dreamers. That is until Max gets drafted.
"Across the Universe" is a musical (directed by Julie Taymor, "Titus"- the movie, not the TV show) consisting entirely of Beatles songs sung by the young cast. A few of them work very well and the movie starts out decently enough. Not all of the early musical scenes click, but enough of them do and the songs actually seem to reflect what's going on in the minds and hearts of the characters (what songs in musicals are, ya know, supposed to do). But right around the time we get to "Come Together" which inexplicably features Joe Cocker as a pimp, "Across the Universe" begins to unravel. Uncle Sam singing "I Want You" and Bono showing up only make matters worse. From that point on, the vast majority of the songs are just music videos that meander and meander. And meander some more. A few of the later songs are used effectively, particularly "Revolution" and "Hey Jude," but most of them are diversions that make "Across the Universe" come off as an interminable lament for the sixties.
I think my biggest disappointment with this movie was that even it's visual style was not that spectacular. Having seen what Taymor did with "Titus" I was really looking forward to what she would do with the look of this film.
I'll say this. The songs are well sung. Sturgess and Anderson prove to be formidable talents as actors and singers, while Wood (who's already shown she's one of the best young actresses working today) proves that she can sing as well. But that's why there's a soundtrack. All in all, "Across the Universe" doesn't...oh, oh, I'm gonna do it...come together. 4/10.