Blu-ray Review: Across the Universe

THE MOVIE: 4 1/2 stars out of 5

Having not seen this film in the theaters and knowing little about it other than the HD trailers I have seen on TV and the fact that it was set to the music of The Beatles, I went into this film with a completely open mind. My impression after only one viewing is that this is a wonderful movie and very original to boot. Briefly, the story is essentially a love story involving two teenagers, a British lad from Liverpool (Jim Sturgess) and a young lady from Ohio (Evan Rachel Ward), who meet and fall in love in Greenwich Village amid the backdrop of the Vietnam War, the peace movement and psychedelic drugs. The film features cameos by Joe Cocker, Bono and Eddie Izzard and even the voice of New York DJ Cousin Brucie. The entire story is woven together using Beatles songs that have been rearranged beautifully and very imaginatively by the great T-Bone Burnett. This is a wonderful film and well worth a look. Highly recommended.

THE VIDEO: 4 3/4 stars out of 5

Encoded with AVC and presented in its original aspect ratio of 2:40:1, this is a wonderful looking film from the folks at Columbia Picture and Sony Home Entertainment. The film boasts a very striking color palette, a very sharp image with deep black levels and a three dimensional image. Detail is excellent, from the subtle details on the bricks in the wall of the shipyard in Liverpool to the store fronts in Greenwich Village. However, the color palette is a bit skewed to the gold and green to give it a period look. Shadow detail is excellent as well with no obvious encoding errors. In short, there is little to complain about with this encode. It is one great looking film.

THE AUDIO: 4 3/4 stars out of 5

The high rez audio option on this release is Dolby True HD at 48 kHz/24 bit and is every bit as good as the video. It is the musical numbers that really shine on this disc, with a very natural, open and spacious sound with excellent instrument timbre and beautifully recorded vocals. Bass is deep and tight with excellent use of the surrounds where appropriate. I wouldn’t hesitate to say that this is some of the best sounding music in a movie that I have seen in a long time, almost as good as the musical presentation in Immortal Beloved. As for the rest of the film, the dialogue is clear and crisp and wonderfully presented in the sound mix. The overall sound of the film can best be described as smooth, open and detailed which totally pulls you into the action. There is excellent use of the surrounds, especially during the action sequences in the film, set in Vietnam and campus riots in New York, as well as a few psychedelic scenes which have a totally immersive feel. This film boasts an excellent audio presentation which is a match to the top notch video.

IN CONCLUSION

This is a wonderful and very imaginative film that boasts excellent audio and video and some wonderful reworkings of classic Beatles songs. Highly recommended.

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