ACROSS THE UNIVERSE

RYAN: I waited for what felt like a lifetime to see “Across the Universe” and at long last, we’ve seen it!

CAROLINE: This is one of my favorite films of the year so far. The first hour was as good as anything I’ve seen in a long time. It dragged a little in the second half, but I cannot even begin to list the reasons why I loved this movie.

RYAN: It dragged overall for me. I didn’t love it as much as you and I’m a wee bit surprised I’m saying that. I just didn’t like the vibe. It’s the kind of movie that the kids joke about getting high and going to, and that’s not my thing.

CAROLINE: The choreography was amazing. It’s definitely trippy and psychedelic but that’s the whole point – it’s the 60s, baby!

RYAN: The choreography was fabulous; there were five scenes that I really loved with phenom dancing. Bono was brilliant; he does a killer American accent. His acting scenes were just as good as his singing, but there was no reason for him to all of a sudden be there singing “I Am the Walrus.”

CAROLINE: Other than the small detail that how cool is it to see Bono singing a Beatles song?

RYAN: Fine, but it did feel random.

CAROLINE: I didn’t feel that way at all, and I do think it helps to know the songs because then you’re excited every time they start singing a new one. There are several characters in the movie who are musicians or rock stars so there are several opportunities to seamlessly work in Beatles songs as performances within the movie. And then the rest of the songs just woven in like a regular musical. Everyone in the movie has a great voice, other than Evan Rachel Wood who sounds merely decent.

RYAN: They totally over-processed her voice. You could practically hear the effects and echoes of the ProTools. She totally sounds like Ashlee Simpson.

CAROLINE: The two lead guys, Jim Sturgess and Joe Anderson, are both awesome. They have incredible voices and Jim even sounded like your favorite Ewan McGregor in “Moulin Rouge!”

RYAN: Those guys were both so amazing that if they each came out with albums of their own I would buy them. I was also bowled over by the girl who played Prudence. Her voice was fabulous and I wished she had more singing. These were some of the best acting performances of the year.

CAROLINE: There’s also a very cool Janis Joplin-esque woman who has a cool voice and she gets to rock out a lot to Beatles tunes.

RYAN: As much as I didn’t love this movie, I can’t deny that the performances, the editing and the staging were great and I wouldn’t be upset if any of them got nominated for Oscars.

CAROLINE: There are a couple of group choreography scenes, particularly when Max gets drafted and when JoJo first comes to NYC, that are literally unreal. I think my jaw hit the floor. There is some visually stunning stuff in this movie.

RYAN: Absolutely and that’s Julie Taymor. Bottom line?

CAROLINE: This movie worked for me on every level. I love a musical, I love dancing and I think a teensy part of me was a child of the 60s in a former life. Not the trippy, drugged out 60s, but the cool music part. This movie is a little heavy on the “message”; there’s a lot of war talk, and the civil rights movement gets a shout-out, but it’s relevant. Sometimes the war stuff was a little much with all the protesting, and that’s where is started to drag. But I just love a damn musical, what can I say?

RYAN: This film had a lot of problems; they changed the release date, Julie Taymor threatened to take her name off of it and I think I’m kind of on that side. It’s a little loose and messy. I didn’t connect with the characters. All the songs are great of course, and the performances are brilliant, so I’m walking away feeling a balance of having equally liked and disliked the movie. If it had been a little tighter and I’d been able to emotionally connect to it more, I would have loved it. At the end of the day though, I’d still recommend it since I’m into the movie musical.