When I first saw this trailer, I wasn’t sure I would ever see it. The trailer was very psychedelic, 60′s-ish, and musical and I am not that interested in musicals. Though I must be honest, I did enjoy Rent and The Phantom of the Opera, but I think more than anything, I enjoy the more modern singing styles that both of those movies employed (especially Rent). This movie is very unique in that all of the songs sung or heard throughout the film are all Beatles’ songs. When I first learned of that fact, I admit I was a bit more interested, but then again, I didn’t grow up with the Beatles or with insane Beatles-obsessed parents, so to me they were a very great, but very vintage nostalgic treasure I enjoyed from afar. And, I was DEFINITELY not so much into them that I was going to sit through 2 hours of a movie based solely on their songs…

…I couldn’t have been more wrong in my judgments. The movie totally grabbed me up by my cynical body and shook out all of my preconceived notions. It’s set in the 1960′s, right around and amidst the controversial Vietnam War, where we find this group of young twentysomethings trying to discover who they are, what they are about, and what this world has prepared for them. We begin on a dreary beach in Liverpool with Jude (very Coldplay-esque, see “Yellow”), (most, if not all, of the names of the characters come from Beatles’ songs) who starts us off with his rendition of “Girl” which leads the audience right into the story.

The story, at times confusingly, follows Jude, a young college-age Liverpool boy, who is trying to find his way to the US to meet his real father. Along the way he befriends Max, a rich and spoiled, yet rebellious by nature, Ivy-league student who prefers to defy all authority and parental expectations, while at the same time, trying to suck everything out of life, for free of course. They head to New York to discover themselves, because that’s where you went in the 60′s if you were a twentysomething looking for an identity and/or a cause. Through an odd series of events, they end up living in this loft with a rag-tag bunch of people including, radical peace activists, a Janis Joplin-like singer named Sadie, a “Yoko Ono” character from Ohio who we think is a lesbian named Prudence, a Jimmy Hendrix character named JoJo who plays guitar for the Janis Joplin character, Max’s sister Lucy who is the All-American girl who eventually falls for Jude, and countless other “hippies” who just roam in and out throughout the film who we are to really pay no attention to.

Lining the entire movie like old wallpaper is this very anti-war undertone. I thought, at times, the message was a little too in your face. I was thinking, yeah, I get it, you (the director and makers of the film) don’t like war and are obviously making a statement about the Vietnam War while at the same time commenting on today’s war issues. I understand your feelings and I agree, let me tell you, but I wanted that to be 2nd to the developing characters and their struggle to find what they were supposed to fight for. I thought they did a pretty good job of balancing out the anti-war message with the characters and the story, but at times, it was a little too much.

If you are not at all into the 1960′s, psychedelic, hippy, crazy tie-dye colors, scene, then this movie might not be your cup of tea. Particularly the scene involving Bono, who plays some whacky doctor who leads this crazy tie-dye bus across the country whilst singing and preaching and at times spinning around…and then at some point they are in a field where giant scary Asian rabbits are leading the way to a one-man circus that involves little blue Popsicle people…I just re-read that sentence and even I don’t know what I saw. Basically, it’s a very trippy, crazy, bright, colorful, psychedelic, drug-induced scene that left my wife and I giggling a little bit because we weren’t sure what had just happened. But, hey, we got to see Bono.

Like Rent and Phantom of the Opera, all of the actors in this film sang the songs themselves, which very much impressed me. It really adds that something extra to the scene, knowing they had to really give it everything, not just in acting, but also in song, to nail their character. I love how each character individualized the songs they were required to sing. They really made it their own, yet still keeping and paying homage to the original creators themselves, the Beatles.

Overall, I would very much recommend this movie to rent for a Friday night. It’s not as romantic as I thought it would be, so it’s not really a romance fire starter, but as for music in films, it’s definitely one of my top 3. (I only have 3 at this point, but don’t tell anyone)

Content Warnings: After seeing the initial teaser trailer, I was a bit cautioned as to the amount of “fleshy” material that may be in the film, with it being set in the “free love” era of the 1960′s, but to be honest, save 2 scenes: 1 underwater scene where you do catch a few glimpses of a man’s butt and 1 figure drawing scene where Jude is drawing Lucy while she is sleeping and there is a short stint where her breasts are shown, the movie kept a pretty clean stature. It is rated PG-13 for some drug content, nudity, sexuality, violence and language. I would definitely not let youth under the age of 17 go see this movie, as I think it’s too intense in its imagery and its sexuality. Although there are only 2 scenes with actual nudity, being that it is set in that time period, some of the relationships are definitely sexual and a bit too real for youth.

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