Across the Universe

**** Stars

What a lovely film this is. Full of life, important topics, and wonderful visuals. Across the Universe explores the lives of young adults in love and how you need nothing else.

The film is a musical through Beatles songs and characters. Jude, Lucy, Max, Sadie, Rita, Prudence, JoJo, Dr. Robert, Mr. Kite are all present. Jude (Jim Sturgess) is a dock worker who leaves his girlfriend in a quest to find his estranged father in America. When he gets there, he meets the girl of his dreams named Lucy (The wonderful Evan Rachel Wood). She is a sheltered American girl whose brother Max (Joe Anderson) is drafted to fight in the Vietnam War, and through that she becomes an activist in the peace movement. Other various characters enter their lives and help them through their struggles through songs that made the world stand still (or erupt them to their feet).

Realists will be compelled to call this a formulaic waste of pretentious garbage. Now, I never experienced Vietnam or lived through the Primetime of The Beatles, but I found this to be one of the most magical movies of the year. Films rarely relate to the personal feelings of confused young adults correctly like this one; who questions authority, chooses to ignore a parents wish and learn from their own mistakes, and where falling in love may be the answer to all the questions. Whether you are Here, There, and Everywhere, writing a letter to Prudence, declaring you are a Walrus, saying hey to Jude, Letting it Be, running through Strawberry Fields Forever, wanting to hold a hand, or crossing the universe, you will find an uplift in these memories even if you have no idea what I just said.