Allow me to begin by saying I am not a huge fan of the Beatles. I understand it is almost a crime to not be a fan, but whatever, I am not a huge fan. I can count on one hand the songs of theirs I actually enjoy. So, a movie musical set to only the music of The Beatles was not something I was jumping for joy to see. Then I saw the trailer for it and thought it looked brilliant. Well, it looked either glorious or a glorious mess. Either way I was hooked and was very curious about how Julie Taymor(director- Frida and stage version of The Lion King) would handle everything that was going on in the trailer. So, did it turn out to be glorious or a glorious mess?
Set during the Vietnam war this is a mostly plot less movie following the lives of 6 young people living the bohemian lifestyle in New York. Jude(Jim Sturgess) is a "limey" who came to America to find his father and instead found Max(Joe Anderson) and Lucy(Evan Rachel Wood). Upon arriving in New York, Max and Jude meet Sadie(Dana Fuchs), Prudence(T.V Carpio) and JoJo(Martin Luther). Lucy eventually joins them and the six of them live in one apartment. Sadie is a singer looking for her break and JoJo is her guitarist and lover. Prudence is a lesbian with a crush on Sadie and Jude is an artist who is in love with Lucy. Their whole world begins to change as Max gets his draft notice and goes off to join the war. Jude and Lucy fall in love but Lucy's commitment to the anti-war rally cry starts to tear them apart. Sadie gets her big break but she has to leave JoJo behind to get it and does so. The 6 seem to completely separate. But, like I said, the plot is not the point of the movie, the visuals are.
The movie opens on Jude sitting in the sand singing a bit of a prologue and to steal a line from Superbad "looking into his eyes is like the first time I heard the Beatles." Jim Sturgess has the darkest, most mysterious yet honest eyes ever. His eyes are full of a sad passion and hopeless romantic tendencies. His voice is earnest and real and full of an unwavering love for Lucy. But the visuals that accompany the prologue are freaking brilliant. We see basically the entire story we are about to see as told in glimpses as the waves of the ocean move through newspaper articles. It is a stunning opening and really gets one excited for the rest of the movie. Visually this movie is always inventive and exciting and always overshadows everything else. Bono shows up for an amazing rendition of "I am the Walrus" accompanied by these tripped out colors and visual effects that make everyone look blue and then makes every look like radio frequencies, if that is possible. Eddie Izzard has a brilliant little cameo as an emcee at the craziest circus ever. But the sequence that is probably the coolest in my opinion was the scene where Max is being taken into the Army. Set to "I want you" Max enters this weird place where every soldier has a weird mask face and each of the soldiers is doing this is amazing choreography and taking Max through his physical and into his army clothes. It is truly a sight to watch and it is still with me two days later.
Aside from the visual though, I am not sure how much I loved this movie. The voices are all fine, in fact, Dana Fuchs has got this deep raspy soulful voice that blew me away as she ripped through "Helter Skelter" "Oh Darling" and "Don't let me down" and Martin Luther not only sings with a soulful voice but he can straight up wail on a guitar. His rendition of "While my guitar gently weeps" might be the vocal and emotional high of this movie. Even Rachel Wood may not have the strongest voice ever, but it seems perfect for the role and for the songs that she sings. Her best moment comes as she sings "If I fell." Joe Anderson as Max gets most of the best lines as he is a cocky college dropout, but he also gets the most depth as he goes to war (The war sequences are incredibly interesting looking) and when he comes back from war he is a totally different person. Her really has a great soaring voice and it shows during "Hey Jude" and "With a little help from my friends." I already mentioned Stugress' eyes but his voice is also excellent as he passionately proclaims "All you need is love" and goes absolutely bloody crazy with a bass thumping thrashing version of "Revolution." I mention all of this music because it beautifully moves the story along and each song does seem perfectly placed. One of the coolest scenes to me was our introduction to JoJo. He is walking through the street looking as cool as a polar bear's toenails and all around him people are singing "Come together." It really shows how cool this guy is going to be in the film and while it is visually the most simple scene it is still very effective.
Not all of the visuals make sense in the structure of telling a story and often this feels like a bunch of short films/music videos all lumped together in hopes of telling a single story. The movie gets a little long in the tooth by the time it ends and it also gets very predictable, even in its crazy images. Actually the crazy images give way during the final 20 to 25 minutes in favor of trying to finish the story. However, even when it fails it manages to be entertaining to watch as the beautiful colors and images provide a nice different movie going experience. If you have been wanting for another Moulin Rouge! type of movie or if Hair! is your thing, this is a very nice substitute. For fans of The Beatles there are an abundance of references to the band and to songs not included in the movie. If you are looking something different, something beautiful and adventurous, this is a very great glorious mess of a movie that should not be missed!
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