Movie Review: Across the Universe (2007)

Director: Julie Taymor

Across the Universe is so much more than the ordinary musical. The music implemented in it is not simply a means of expressing a character’s words instead of mainstream lines – the music goes much deeper than that. It sets the moods, shows the viewer an insight to the character’s thoughts and feelings, and, what is most impressive, weaves additional, smaller stories into the big picture. It is hard to say whether the Beatles’ songs complement the plot or the other way around, but in the end of the day the combination of the two is spectacular.

This movie gave me goose-bumps, made me cry, and laugh, and dream. It is beautiful beyond limitation while describing a very contrasting part of the American history – the war in Vietnam. It also gives very different aspects to the story showing the lives not only of the soldiers or the hippies fighting for peace, but also of all the different people around them, each with his own story and each somehow involved in those events although not directly. Even though some of the characters portray stereotypes of the time, each of them is somehow surprising and showing himself as different and free to follow his own path instead of the mass movement.

Another thing that particularly appealed to me was that even though there is strong love story, it is not the main topic of the movie and it’s not what everything revolves around. The balance between the different themes is fantastic, and I believe that the Julie Taymor has done an amazing job directing this movie, focusing in a unique way on all of its issues.