Thursday, February 28, 2008

Across the Universe

I wasn't going to blog about this musical movie, but the more I think about it, the more I realize that I am absolutely in love with it! You have to approach it with an open mind, otherwise you'll be completely disappointed. It's the story of Jude (Jim Sturgess) who leaves England to go to America to meet his biological father during the Vietnam War. While he's there, he meets Max (Joe Anderson), a student at Princeton. They fast become friends. Over Thanksgiving, Jude goes home with Max to celebrate. During this time, Jude meets Max's sister, Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). While at home, Max decides to drop out of school then he and Jude move to New York. Because he's no longer in school, Max gets drafted into the army. Jude and Lucy have started dating. Things start to get complicated when Lucy starts going to anti-war rallies to protest the war, and Jude stays home to works on his art as his way of protesting. Throughout all of this is the amazing music of the Beatles (I hope you picked up on that from the names of the characters [Hey, Jude, Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds, Maxwell's Silver Hammer]). The soundtrack is just incredible! All the leads have great voices plus smaller parts played by people who made it in the business by being singers. There's small bit roles played by the amazing Bono, Joe Cocker, Salma Hayek and Eddie Izzard.

But like I said, watch it with an open mind. The late 60s and 70s are known for being a bit out there and there are parts of this movie that are definitely out there. It's mostly the part with Eddie Izzard as Mr. Kite while singing "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite." There's a line in the song about blue people and there are blue people in the movie. It reminded me a lot of a Tim Burton movie at the point (think Big Fish). But also be aware that it is rated PG-13 for good reason - there is nudity, language, sex, drugs, and of course the violence seen during the war scene.

On a different note, I really want to pick Paul McCartney's brain about this movie. My number one question: "Is that what John and you saw while writing "Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite"?"

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Attention!

Kim said...

Looks like you need to get rid of url's and anonymous comments. I'm ready for the next installation! :o)

LLHK, MOM