As The Beatle’s song goes, and who couldn’t fall in love with the cheeky Liverpuddlian character of Jude played by British Actor Jim Sturgess in the latest movie to hit the big screen, Across the Universe? Directed by the masterful Julie Taymor (Titus, Broadway’s The Lion King), this film is a must-see.
From the moment the movie begins and the camera zooms in on the lonely figure of Jude sat on the murky overcast beach of Liverpool, and his acapella version of ‘Girl’ strikes your ears, you just know this is going to be a masterpiece encompassing all the best of The Beatle’s music from the 1960’s.

With an accent and attitude reminiscent of a young John Lennon, Jude commands the viewer’s attention right from the start. Then add to the mix the honey clear vocals of Lucy, played by Evan Rachel Wood, it becomes even more apparent that a nostalgic ‘trip’ through the 1960’s is on the agenda.

After Jude leaves the shores of Liverpool to seek out his errant father in Princeton, he meets up with a Princeton University student, Max, played by Joe Anderson and the story takes on a whole new dimension. The 1960’s in America was dominated by the Viet Nam war, and the war inspired lyrics of many of the 60’s Beatle’s catalogue takes the movie in the direction of left wing politics, drugs and revolution.

With a cast, often hidden by masks, make up and psychogenic choreography, it is possible to spot, Salma Hayek as a sexy nurse, Joe Cocker as a subway down and out, Eddie Izzard as Mr. Kite, a bazaar ringmaster in a circus of blue people and Bono, looking almost like himself, playing the leader of a band of hippie revelers who just want to return to California, while Bono sings another classic from The Beatles, ‘I Am the Walrus’.

With all its controversial elements, the murder of Martin Luther King Jr., the Detroit riots, drugs, sex, war and revolution, the movie still only comes with a PG-13 movie rating and as such offers an excellent history lesson for those less fortunate than to have been born early enough to appreciate those days of flower power, hippies, freedom and the wonderful sentiments of The Beatle‘s song, ‘All You Need Is Love’.

ABB