Yesterday

It's interesting to look back and see the huge impact the music of The Beatles made on the world. The band didn't even make it out of the 60's intact, but while they were together, the four of them managed to create some of the most incredible and popular songs of all time. The new film Yesterday is a celebration of sorts of those songs, with a unique and fantastical twist. Is it successful? For the most part, yes. 

Jack Malik (played by Himesh Patel) is a struggling singer/songwriter, playing small gigs here and there but feeling frustrated his career hasn't taken off. He's accompanied by his lifelong best friend and manager, Ellie (played by Lily James). One night, all the lights across the world mysteriously shut off all at once, causing Jack to get hit by a bus. When he awakens in the hospital he finds the world has changed in unusual ways since the previous day. He is shocked to discover that somehow, The Beatles have never existed. No one remembers their songs and internet searches pull up nothing. Their albums have even disappeared from his record collection. When he plays one of their songs for his friends to incredulous looks from them he makes a fateful decision to start performing their songs and passing them off as his own. He begins reverse engineering each Beatles song he can remember to recreate them (with Eleanor Rigby amusingly proving to be the hardest to remember right). Soon enough, his performances catch the attention of Ed Sheeran (played by Ed Sheeran), who offers him a spot opening for him on the European leg of his current tour. Of course, Jack accepts but has to leave Ellie behind as she opts to continue her day job as a school teacher. His performances opening for Ed Sheeran catch the attention of Ed's manager, Debra Hammer (played by Kate McKinnon), who sees Jack and his music as the next big thing.  As his rocketing fame becomes overwhelming and being seperated from Ellie brings up new feelings in both, as well as the mounting guilt of passing off someone else's work as his own, Jack increasingly feels trapped and unsure what to do next. 

Danny Boyle directed the film from a script by Richard Curtis. The two of them spin an intriguing tale that I wanted to see just based on the premise alone: What if you woke up one morning and you're the only one that remembered The Beatles? Now, amusingly, there are some other aspects of our current world that are missing that Jack discovers throughout the film (the best one being Jack searching other bands online to hilariously finding out the 90s band Oasis never happened either). But the big one is that, somehow, The Beatles never happened. Of course, Jack decides to exploit this for his own gain and the plot line does more or less go where we expect it to, although Richard Curtis does throw in a couple of nice curve balls to keep us on our toes. Especially a very bold one that I wasn't sure they were going to go for but am so glad they did because it was surprisingly emotional for me. I won't spoil it, but you'll know it when you see it. 

Where the film stumbles a bit is in the music sequences. They just never catch fire in the way you'd want them to, especially for a film directed by such a visual director as Danny Boyle. I mean, they're fine and everything but it just lacked the sort of energy or emotional punch, aside from one performance towards the end, that the songs of The Beatles should inspire. When you compare how the songs are used here with how they were used in Across the Universe (and to be fair that movie is a far more surreal jukebox musical), I just wish it they had a little more behind them and were a little more memorable. 

Himesh Patel gives a real everyman quality to Jack in his performance that makes his character easily relatable and certainly empathetic, especially as his life begins to get more and more crazy. He also performs every song in the film himself and is actually quite good with each one. Lily James is a good match for Patel and the two share some decent chemistry as well. You really buy that these two have been friends since they were kids. She also is really good at conveying in subtle ways that her character wants their relationship to be more, but is hesitant to say anything because she is also happy for all of Jack's success. I was also surprised just how much Ed Sheeran is in this film. It's a good and proper supporting role and I appreciated how game he was to gently mock himself. And of course, as a long time Kate McKinnon fan I am always thrilled to see her turn up on screen. She's great fun as manager Debra Hammer and at times a bit scary as well.     

For the most part, Yesterday was a fun and entertaining salute to the music of The Beatles with a fantasy twist. It isn't perfect and the plot is a bit predictable at times. But Richard Curtis and Danny Boyle make the formula work this time, with good performances and a funny script, keeping things fun and inventive enough that I didn't care that I knew where it was headed. Except for that one moment I didn't and boy, I think it made the movie for me.