Across the Universe

I believe I may be in love with this movie. It is thoughtful, beautiful, sad, happy, twisted, amazing.

I know I'm a little behind on the times, considering I just saw this movie for the first time today, but it really touched me. I laughed, I cried, and continued to do both throughout the entire flick.

Not only is it unique in that it took a band, The Beatles, and brought their music truly to life, it reinvented some of the songs - not in the way they were recreated necessarily, but in their actual meaning as well. This movie made the songs its own.

While I'm not a huge Beatles fan to begin with, (I do love a lot of their music but some of it simply makes me cringe from hearing too many of the same songs over and over), I really enjoyed the new renditions of the songs they used.

I also appreciated the song choices: while I knew most of the songs, many were of the less popular variety and there were also a few I have to admit to have never heard before! This was quite refreshing since the Beatles have a lot of music as well as many, many songs that are absolutely breathtaking in different ways, which were never widely released or played on radio stations. One such song, "Blackbird," will be the first song I am able to play in its entirety on guitar. I chose it due to the fact that it isn't widely known, as well as it being fingerpicked and including no other instruments. I knew it'd be one I'd be proud to show off as my first song learned.

The actors and actresses were mostly unknown, at least as far as blockbusters are concerned, which was extremely refreshing. It's always nice to see a movie not riddled with big names and faces we see every day in most every movie released anymore. And these fresh faces can sing. I'm not talking "American Idol" singing, I'm talking about real singing. Unique voices coupled with the unique melodies; while the songs took on lives of their owns, those singing them owned the melodies and the songs. Beautiful.

The few cameos that I remember off the top of my head, particularly Salma Hayek (at a completely unexpected part and in an unexpected role), Eddie Izzard (who owned the role he cameo'd), and Bono (entirely too perfect for his part) were entertaining and mastered.

This movie leaves no stone unturned, thoroughly resolves all loose ends, and not only does it show where each character comes from culturally but also meticulously illuminates the maturing aspects of each character as their stories intertwine and reality sets in.

I know this movie took a lot of criticism, much of which was negative, but I would recommend it to anyone and everyone. It's an unforgettable and wondrous adventure well worth the 2 hours of psychedelic beauty and emotional ups and downs it encases.