Across the Universe stars Evan Rachel Wood and Jim Sturgess. Jim plays a young lad named Jude who was born and raised in Liverpool. Jude decides to travel to the United States to find his father who left before Jude was even born. While Jude is in the United States he runs into a Princeton student named Max. Max invites Jude to come with him to his parents for Thanksgiving. There Jude meets Lucy, played by Evan Rachel Wood. Jude instantly becomes smitten by Lucy. Max and Jude move to New York, where Lucy decides to join them during the summer. From then on Jude and Lucy's relationship begins to grow.
Across the Universe is a musical where songs by The Beatles play an integral part into the stories plot. Throughout the entire movie the cast will break into song, and sometimes dance, to songs from The Beatles catalog. For me, most of the musical numbers worked, but at times I felt some dragged on a bit longer than they needed to. The ones that bothered me the most are the ones where "drugs" where involved and it got all psychedelic. For example one that I didn't really like at all involved Bono from the band U2. At first I thought it was okay, but they it got a little crazy and out there. Below I have include a video of the scene. These scenes just seemed to take away from the story and didn't really serve a purpose. The musical numbers I enjoyed fit into the story and weren't a distraction. They showed the emotions of the characters and help progress their relationships.
Overall I felt that Across the Universe was enjoyable. There were definitely a few scenes that could have been cut, but hearing songs by The Beatles performed in a new unique way was interesting and fun to watch. If you are a fan of The Beatles or just enjoy musical in general then I would say check out Across the Universe.
