Across the Universe

If nothing else, "Across the Universe" has those fabulous Beatles songs. It has a whole lot of them, as a matter fact.

Of course, all that does is make you wish that the Fab Four were performing them, rather than a cast that's made up mostly of American actors and musicians.

To be fair, their credible renditions of nearly three-dozen Beatles numbers are nothing to sneeze at. And they are certainly the highlight of this muddled, overlong musical fantasy/romance.

Relative newcomer Jim Sturgess stars in this '60s period piece as Jude Feeney, a British dock worker who's come to America to find his biological father, a custodian at Princeton University. Jude does find his father, and he also finds a friend in Max Carrigan (Joe Anderson), a rebellious student.

Max and Jude have a series of misadventures, and Max also introduces Jude to his sister, Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood). For Jude, it's love at first sight. But Lucy, who recently lost her high school sweetheart in the Vietnam War, needs convincing.

As with director Julie Taymor's other films ("Titus," "Frida"), this one is a bit messy and self-indulgent. Some judicious editing would help. (Did the film really need a character named Prudence, so the rest of the cast could sing "Dear Prudence" to her?)

Still, the film is helped by homages to the Beatles/Richard Lester movies, particularly 1965's "Help!" as well a nod to the 1968 animated feature "Yellow Submarine."

On whole, this effort is nowhere near as bad as the 1978 dud "Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band," which tried to do some of the same things.

What works best are the music selections (including U2 frontman Bono's version of "I Am the Walrus"), as well as up-and-coming actress Wood, who's terrific. She and Sturgess make an appealing screen couple.

"Across the Universe" is rated PG-13 for some scenes of strong war violence and rioting (shootings, beatings and explosive mayhem), some suggestive language and references, some strong profanity, drug content (use of and references to various pharmaceuticals and narcotics), female nudity, brief sex and other sexual contact, slurs based on race and nationality, and brief gore. Running time: 134 minutes.

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E-MAIL: jeff@desnews.com