Across The Universe

"is there anybody going to listen to my story;
all about the girl who came to stay?
she's the kind of girl you want so much,
it makes you sorry.
still, you don't regret a single day."

my love for The Beatles found me anticipating a month just to watch "Across The Universe" in theatres, which i finally did yesterday. yay ((: this deserves more than just a few smileys.

being a fan of The Beatles that i am, i could hardly contain my excitement when i finally got the tickets. and i'm glad i brought someone who shared my sentiments in Beatlemania: my grandaunt! (: a bonus even came with it, the trailer for Sweeney Todd previewed before the movie started. doubleyay (:

i was expecting for the movie to be a rapid, fleeting compilation of some of the greatest Beatles' hits in the 60's but i couldn't be more wrong, it followed a slow-progressing plot at the start and lasted for a while over two hours. i liked that the characters were aptly named from characters mentioned in some of the Beatles' songs over many albums, such as "Hey Jude", "Lucy In The Sky With Diamonds", "Maxwell's Silver Hammer", "Sexy Sadie" and "Dear Prudence".

the movie started with Jude singing "Girl" and throughout the whole film which was very much like a musical, many more familiar Beatles songs popped up everywhere; i almost felt like i was in a Beatles concert. not that it was a bad thing, because i found myself singing along to most popular hits like "All My Loving" and "I Wanna Hold Your Hand".

Jude appears as a dock-hand from Liverpool who goes across America searching for his estranged father. There, he meets Lucy and her brother, Max who drops out of college to discover life in New York and goes with him. Lucy joins them in New York when her boyfriend dies in the Vietnam War. i do admit that i was waiting for the two leads to fall in love for most part at the start and that's where the storyline seemed to crawl. but then you realise the little details come in crucial when the story picks up its pace towards the climax.

historical 60's events such as the Detroit 12th Street riot, the Vietnam War, radical anti-war and counterculture movements are all drafted into the plot later on. the storyline then goes over to New York where Max and Jude moves in with a landlady named Sadie. A guitarist from Detroit, Jojo and a hitch-hiker, Prudence joins in the company and it does get a little difficult trying to focus on each of their situations throughout the film.

i really liked the musical sequence at the bowling alley scene when Jude sang "I've Just Seen A Face" and somewhat self-admitted to falling in love with Lucy. the whole scene just seemed so Beatles-inspired (: another part of the movie that should gain enough credit is when Max is sent to Vietnam by the US Army, the iconic Uncle Sam appears with "I Want You (She's So Heavy)". this scene has such an exhilarating impact with all the imagery and everything.

Bono even makes a cameo appearance as Doctor Robert and brings the party on a "Weird Load" bus complete with psychedelic effects. His rendition of "I Am The Walrus" wins ((: i really liked the part where the company goes on a sequence led by a circus ringmaster, Mr Kite and the scene ends with a bittersweet rendition of "Because" (:

"because the world is round,
because the world is round.
love is old, love is new;
love is all, love is you."

then comes my favourite scene when Jude sings "Something" and draws a sleeping Lucy. as Lucy becomes more involved in the anti-war movement, the love between Jude and Lucy begins to waver and the two eventually lose each other in an overwhelming sea of protesters and Jude is deported back to England. "Strawberry Fields Forever" sums up Jude's anguish, also reflected in the "bleeding" strawberries he pins on his studio wall.

"let me take you down;
cause i'm going to Strawberry Fields.
nothing is real;
and nothing to get hung about.
Strawberry Fields forever."

Max eventually returns from Vietnam and Jude returns to New York in search of Lucy when Max fittingly sings "Hey Jude". towards the end, Sadie and her backing band, the Po Boys, with Jojo and Prudence, hold an illegal concert on a rooftop. alone with the microphone, Jude serenades Lucy with "All You Need Is Love" as she's walking away from the scene. Hearing Jude's voice, she turns back and finds her way back to him from the rooftop of an adjacent building. it was a really charming ending.

indeed, love is all you need.

"there's nothing you can do that can't be done.
nothing you can sing that can't be sung.

all you need is love,
all you need is love,
all you need is love,
love; love is all you need."