"Across the Universe"

Julie Taymor is a gifted artist and director. Not just for "The Lion King" either: her feature film debut, an adaptation of Shakespeare's "Titus" starring Anthony Hopkins and Kate Beckinsale, was shocking and inspired. So imagine my disappointment after sitting through 140-minutes of "Across the Universe." I won't sugarcoat it: the movie is a complete and total misfire.

It is a great concept: fashioning a story out of the music of the Beatles, set during the time the songs were created, and interpreted by a cast who were not even born when the songs were hits. The cast of young, energetic, relative unknowns acquits itself well. (Except for one female cast member, who goes by the unfortunate name of 'T.V. Carpio' -- with a name like that, I hope she stays unknown!)

But this mess of a story with an oh-so multi-cultural cast often feels like a warmed-over "Rent" (with a better soundtrack). Before that, it comes across as a spin-off of NBC's short-lived "American Dreams." And worst of all, its depiction of the Sixties is so cliche-ridden it has all the complexity of "Forrest Gump" (again with a better soundtrack). [Note: I put that last movie in quotes, to point out that the politics in that overrated movie is even more simplistic than the intelligence of its title character!]

'ATU' never even attempts to create real characters or wring true emotions out of its protagonists. Think of it as the anti-'Once.' Without these elements, it amounts to nothing more than a collection of music videos--and not very cutting-edge videos at that. The dancing, the editing, the camera angles are all so 'been there, seen that on MTV when they used to show videos!' Only one set piece resonated with me: 'Strawberry Fields Forever,' an artistic expression of both the violence in Vietnam and the inability to stop it at home.

The rest of the interpretations are too damn literal! The beauty of a classic Lennon-McCartney song is that it defies literal interpretation. How can you make sense of a song like "I Am the Walrus" ... and why would you want to? In case you think I am exagerrating, note the ludricous heights (or depths) Taymor reaches when she acts out the lyrics "She's so heavy" (from 'I Want You') and "Mother Superior jumped the gun" (from 'Happiness is a Warm Gun'). Cringe-inducing.

Sure, the screenwriters make maximum use of Beatles lore with inside references and verbal and visual puns: the character names of Jude and Prudence lead to the inevitable (but well done) songs; the main character cuts a Granny Smith apple in half; and the movie's climax comes at an impromptu rooftop concert -- all are nice touches. Some of the best moments are provided by the cameos from real stars: Joe Cocker singing "Come Together"; Bono doing his best non-Irish accented acting before breaking into "I am the Walrus" in full U2 brogue. (This is the second movie in two years where Bono elevates an otherwise weak movie: remember last year's Leonard Cohen doc "I'm Your Man"?)

But this overlong film simply becomes a contest to see how many disparate Fab Four songs it can cram into one movie, without regard to coherence or flow. If Taymor had begun her movie with the end credits (a trippy "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" sung by the incomparable Bono--again!) it would have set the bar at a point where her creativity could have taken off. Instead, we get a brief appearance by her giant puppets (at a protest march, naturally) and not one, but five Salma Hayeks, dressed for Halloween as a 'naughty nurse.' Sometimes you gotta give the people what they want. What I wanted was something a little more daring from the creator of the Lion King and Titus.