Monday, December 29, 2008

Movies made from albums... many in this case

Another movie was waiting to be watched at our house. This time it was Across the Universe. This is a musical based on songs from the Beatles catalogue. I think this movie is the perfect sample of evidence in the age old question of whether style can trump substance. No matter what side of the argument you fall on. 

The first thing that will challenge people about this movie is that the performers' singing in this movie is... well... perfect. Although the screenplay writers did a decent job finding a way to fit the songs into the story, I found that at times it seemed forced - there were a couple of songs that just didn't seem to fit - they didn't make sense where they were placed. 

Once you found out the character's names, you had this premonition that sooner or later you'd be hearing the song about that character. Jude (Hey Jude), Prudence (Dear Prudence), Lucy (Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds)... so that lended a unique dimension to the movie. There are a few cameos of note (I won't spoil them for you), some of them recognizable by their voices before their faces.

I'm not a fan of musicals in the first place, but I did find the movie entertaining. It didn't win me over completely, but the story was interesting enough to keep me engaged.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I had no idea what to expect when we rented this video. I was worried when I realized that the Beatles would not be singing their own songs, but I was quickly won over, to the point that I purchased the sound track. The song that moved me the most was "Let it Be"... I wish I had pipes like that.