close your eyes and i'll kiss you

one of the best pieces of advice i got when i was growing up was from my parents. they insisted that it's of imperative importance that as well as juggling their own worlds, partners pour energy into each other - sharing one or two interests - that if mum and dad are happy and connected, so are the kids.

i remember my parents getting involved in a swimming club together, playing bridge together, tasting wine together. Bulldog and i've had one or two connected interests over the twenty years we've been together (i know you're now thinking of k-i-s-s-i-n-g tree jokes lol).

last year we went ballroom dancing every week - that was so much fun. this year we seem to have fallen into a cinema groove - every fortnight we've picked a movie and dragged any unsuspecting friends along.

last night we found ourselves in the little Encore Theatre watching a very art-house flick: Across the Universe. this review from the New York Times says,

From its first moments, when a solitary dreamer on a beach turns to the camera and sings, unaccompanied, the opening lines of the Beatles' song "Girl", Julie Taymor's 60's musical fantasia "Across the Universe" reveals its intention to use the Beatles' catalog to tell two stories at once, one personal, the other generational. That young man, Jude (Jim Sturgess), is a cheeky Liverpool dockworker with a twinkle in his eye. he quickly emerges as a winsome vocal composite of John Lennon and Paul McCartney, with a personal touch.

From here the movie only gets better. Somewhere around its midpoint, "Across the Universe" captured my heart, and I realised that falling in love with a movie is like falling in love with another person. Imperfections, however glaring, become endearing quirks once you've tumbled.

oh... EDIT:
PS Bulldog has written a review too!!!

I loved it!

Great movie and this is one soundtrack that I am DEFINITELY going to get hold of.

While the movie got a little disconnected in the middle, the sheer magnificence of the music and the choreography caught you and held you captive. If you have a romantic hankering for the nostalgic then this movie will fit the bill.

Visually the movie was a chimeric blend of music video and big screen movie.

A little dark and brooding (what movie set against the backdrop of Vietnam and acid-fuelled protest wouldn’t be?). With the clever juxtaposing of love and jealousy, peace and war, freedom of expression and government oppression, the film explores the thematic Yin-yang of a generation.

For a lad whose earliest memories are played out to the sounds of the Beatles, this movie had resonance that left me hankering for “Yesterday”.

BD (wearing the movie critic hat)

my sentiments exactly.