The film follows Jude (Jim Sturgess), a dockworker from Liverpool, who leaves his home to go to America and look for his father. All he really knows is his name and that he has a Princeton address. He finds the man is a janitor at the prestigious college. After introductions, it becomes clear that he isn't interested in having much more to do with his previously unknown son, so Jude joins up with a student he just met, Max (Joe Anderson), and is invited to Thanksgiving dinner with Max's well-to-do family.
Jude falls in love with Max's younger sister, Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood from The Missing), but when Max decides to drop out of school, Jude and he head to New York to strike out on their own. They become tenants in a flat along with several other characters owned by a singer-to-be, the very sexy Sadie (Dana Fuchs). Their fellow tenants include Jojo (Martin Luther) and Prudence (T.V. Carpio), who came in through the bathroom window one night. Lucy graduates from high school and joins her brother and crush in New York, but when Max is drafted, they hit the road and end up in a strange hippie colony run by the mysterious Mr. Kite. Unfortunately, Jude and Lucy's relationship starts to see some hardships after Max goes off to Nam. While she starts to fight against the war, Jude sees her actions as pointless believing that nothing one person can do could stop the war.
What amazes me is the way the story does a good job of stringing together many of the band's songs like the group singing "I Want You Bad" and Prudence getting jealous because she is in love with JoJo who has fallen for Sadie, so the movie turns into a song of sympathy... "Dear Prudence." This is just one example of the movie's ability to merge from one classic performance to another in a very seamless way that still makes sense for the story. While there are a few places where the songs seemed forced into the story, for the most part, this isn't the case.
The movie wouldn't feel right if it didn't sport a good bit of psychedelic scenes like when Jude realizes he is in love with Lucy, and the bowling alley they are in breaks into song and is filled with crazy lights. Another instance is when Max is drafted and he goes to the Army recruiters. Let's just say his experience is very surreal. It starts with Uncle Sam posters singing to him and ends with he and his fellow draftees lugging a huge Statue of Liberty over a model Vietnam. But that isn't anything compared to their experience with Mr. Kite (Eddie Izzard).
As for special features, this 2-Disc Deluxe Edition is chock full of them. Not only is there a commentary and deleted scenes, but the featurettes available should keep anyone who is watching the DVD entertained and informed. These featurettes include "Creating The Universe," a 30 minute long documentary about the making of the movie, "Stars of Tomorrow," which goes through each of the main cast members, "All About The Music," which is a more detailed look at each of the songs with the director and "FX On The Universe" that focuses on the unique visual style of the film and the ... stranger scenes found in it. Plus the behinds the scene special gives you glimpses of some of the cameo stars like Bono and Salma Hayek when they aren't in front of the camera.
I am by no means an expert on the Beatles and the many songs and albums they published. I was able to gleam a lot of references from this film, but I know there were many more that were lost on me. For a more comprehensive list of allusions, check out the link to the movie's article on Wikipedia below.
This movie is obviously designed with a niche audience in mind, the Beatles fan. Granted, that is a fairly large niche, but a niche nonetheless. While I would expect the average viewer to enjoy the story and nicely performed music, it would have nowhere near the intended impact, and I would imagine a Beatle fan would rate this movie a lot higher than other people. In the end, I would say Across the Universe is to the Beatles as The Wall is to Pink Floyd. It comes off as a large music video for many of the band's most popular songs.
