Way Out There: Across the Universe

Across the Universe
Directed by Julie Taymor
Released September 14, 2007

Julie Taymor's Beatles song-filled fairy tale is a colorful and mostly senseless film that is certainly entertaining but far more puzzling. The singing is pretty much incessant, and unlike "Once", it cannot successfully tell the story all by itself without leaning a bit on the development of the plot. The film drags on for a long time before reaching its generally satisfying conclusion. While the direction is artful and original, a good portion of the film can best be described by the word "trippy". There are dancing priests, bleeding strawberries, conveniently-named characters, and anything else you probably would not think of. The acting is nothing special, and the continuous singing is distracting and very often irreverent. Basically, there is a lot of potential for craziness here, most of which is fulfilled, but it is too unbalanced and the ultimate result is an uneven, wildly bizarre movie.

C+