Across the Universe Movie Review

Across the Universe is a 2007 film directed by Julie Taymor. It stars Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess, with a very random appearance by Eddie Izzard. The film is basically the director’s favorite Beatles songs with a poorly constructed story written around them. The movie is about a couple living in the war torn 1960’s who sing Beatles songs with their friends. There are moments where there is potential for good character development, but then they sing a song and it stops that moment dead in its tracks. If there was less singing and more story-telling, the story would have more room to breathe. I would only recommend it to Beatles fans, but maybe not even then because they may not agree with the composition of the songs. The songs are well done and the visuals for the song numbers are really good. I personally enjoy it as a two hour long music video/tribute to the Beatles and 1960's culture. So if you’re a fan of musicals with cool visual effects and you don’t mind a choppy story line, then I would recommend it. 7/10