"Hapiness is a Warm Gun..."

    It has recently been brought to my attention that not every breathing human on the face of this earth has seen the movie Across the Universe. This is truly a tragedy. For those of you who have seen it, kudos to you (unless you've only seen it once, in which case, you should probably consider watching it again), but for those of you who haven't, here's my official (ish) take on it...

    "A musical tribute to one of Rock’s most beloved bands, The Beatles, Across the Universe pulls together an interesting mix of song, psychedelic effects, and dance. With war and the struggle for peace in the foreground of the movie’s plot, this twisted musical captures the true spirit of the 60’s era through the use of 34 Beatles compositions.
    Including songs from “I Want to Hold Your Hand” to “I Want You (She’s So Heavy)”, Across the Universe cleverly and creatively plays out the fab four’s greatest hits while all the while stringing together a love story that hits ever note. Through the use of metaphors, director Julie Taymor’s characters use the well-known songs to parallel everything from the Vietnam War and the draft, to a young Asian girl (T.V. Carpio) and her infatuation with someone she can never be with.
   The cast’s lovable characters, including Jude (Jim Sturgess), a Liverpool native who comes to America and falls in love with the sheltered Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood ), make it nearly impossible not to care about the characters and their many situations. Max (Joe Anderson), Lucy’s brother and Jude’s first American friend, goes through as many changes as his prim and proper turned radical sister, leaving the audience anything but bored.
   From crazy, psychedelic scenes such as “I am the Walrus”, complete with appearance by Bono, to heart-wrenching serious acts such as the war tainted “Let it Be” and “Strawberry Fields Forever”, Across the Universe has everything any musical lover, Beatles fanatic, or war buff could ask for in a movie."

A few other reasons I believe you should watch this movie:

-The cast is fresh and fairly unknown. Sure we all knew who Evan Rachel Wood was, but who knew she had those pipes? And thank you Julie Taymor for discovering Jim Sturgess...you have completed my life.

-It's the musical-hater's musical. Leave thoughts of The Sound of Music and Chicago out of your head. Besides the random, but totally necessary, bursts of dancing from time to time, the plot is cleverly played out as if no one were singing at all. In other words, the movie does not simply move song to song.

-Dana Fuchs sounds like Janis Joplin and Martin Luther plays eerily like Hendrix.

-The scene Happiness is a Warm Gun. It will change your life, I swear.

-The clever inserts of Beatles' lyrics or references in simple dialogue or in background happenings. Sadie: "Where'd she come from?", Jude: "She came in through the bathroom window". Ba-dum-chi

-Joe Cocker. We needed him back in our lives.