Love Has A Lot to Say

"Love is all you need," or so said Lennon and McCartney in one of the Beatles's hits. Two movies we saw recently were built on that very premise.

The first is the current Oscar possibility, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (IMDB, Tomatometer= 72%). Based on the idea from an F. Scott Fitzgerald short story it shows us what happens when Benjamin Button (Brad Pitt) is born old and progressively gets younger. A great cast including Cate Blanchett, Julia Ormond, Tilda Swinton, and Taraji P. Henson come into (and out of) Benjamin's life as he goes from the end of WW I at his birth to Hurricane Katrina approaching New Orleans.

Through the wonders of computer graphics we watch Brad Pitt grow young while learning how to live and love. We see the heartbreak of loss and the promise of hope. We rejoice in that bittersweet moment when the aging Cate Blanchett and the de-aging Brad Pitt realize the significance about in the middle when in their 40s. We see what love can do when decisions have to be made at different points in life.

Pitt is excellent, as expected. So are Swinton and Blanchett. Henson is remarkable as Queenie, Benjamin's surrogate mother- an African-American running a nursing home. The underlying theme of aging played against Pitt's reversal of the arrow of time is poignant when the nursing home residents refer to Benjamin as "one of us." The cross-racial divide is closed as well.

But in the end it is love, motherly, fatherly, marital, friendship and sexual that propels the movie along. In the end it may very well be that "all you need is love" in order to get through this life, in either direction.

Which brings me to the second film we saw. The 2007 Across the Universe (IMDB, Tomatometer= 54%) is a double-edged love story starring Jim Sturgess and Evan Rachel Wood. The one story is the love the director, Julie Taymor, and the producers have for the music, culture, and iconography of the music of the Beatles. This is a musical built around that soundtrack. The other love story is the one to be expected from the plot, which, while fairly predictable, is still more than you expect to find.

The movie takes place against the back-drop of the 60s with the anti-war protests, hippie and music culture, and substance use. The songs are sung by the people in the movie (including Bono and Joe Cocker as well as the characters). It is not a Beatles soundtrack but often an interpretation of one. "Getting by with a little help from my friends" is an extended campus party. "I want to hold your hand" is a sad song of unrequited love.

The movie was not all that well received by critics at its release. But I tend to agree with my favorite critic, Roger Ebert, who gave this four stars in a really interesting review. (Link.) One of his money quotes:

The beauty is in the execution. The experience of the movie is joyous. I don't even want to know about anybody who complains they aren't hearing "the real Beatles." Fred Astaire wasn't Cole Porter, either. These songs are now more than 40 years old, some of them, and are timeless, and hearing these unexpected talents singing them (yes, and Bono, Izzard and Cocker, too) only underlines their astonishing quality.

To which I say Amen! Rent the movie and just enjoy it. Look for the subtle and not so subtle Beatles references, then go to IMDB trivia for the movie and see what you missed.

In any case this, too, will remind you of the power of love- whether human relationships or the magical mystery (tour?) of music. Let love take you where it will and enjoy the ride.