YESTERDAY REVIEW: A FEEL GOOD MOVIE OF ALL FEEL GOOD MOVIES…

This high-concept romantic comedy is billed as a collaboration between two of the most distinctive voices in British cinema. On one hand, we have the brilliant, Danny Boyle’s “Yesterday,” which imagines a world where the Beatles never happened, made Culturedamandsgeeks think about what would it be like to hear “Yesterday” for the first time, what life would be like if the Beatles didn’t exist. And on the other hand, the film was scripted by the great, Richard Curtis explores some of the implications of its premise to hilarious effect. And the instantly recognizable writing style of Curtis shines through.

Himesh Patel plays Jack, a “struggling musician” is an understatement.

He plays in coffee shops, populated only by his friends. He sings on an empty boardwalk. His childhood friend Ellie (Lily James), who fell in love with him—and his music—when he played Oasis’ “Wonderwall” at a talent show in middle school, acts as his manager, giving him pep talks, fired up by her belief in him.

He lives with his parents in Suffolk (yes, Suffolk, where Culturedamndsgeeks initially grew up too). and is ready to throw in the towel when, one night, the earth experiences a 12-second blackout.

During those 12 seconds, Jack is hit by a bus, and when he wakes up in the hospital realizes something weird has happened when he says to Ellie “Will you still feed me when I’m 64?” and she doesn’t recognize the lyrics. “Why 64?” she asks with curiosity. Jack races to Google, and no matter what the combination of search terms, no trace of the Beatles is to be found (it’s funny, watching Jack type away at the keyboard over and over again). Curtis has a lot of fun with how absurd it would be if you mentioned “The Beatles” to people and they asked, “What’s that?”

Jack makes the choice to start playing these “lost” songs, passing them off as his own.

He plays “Yesterday” for his friends down the pub, and the looks on their listening faces is a potent—and welcome—reminder of the song’s melancholy beauty.

Then the entire film stops, allowing us space to really listen to a classic.

It’s fun when our failed musician turned superstar hero, Jack Malik (Himesh Patel), realizes what has happened and “writes” one classic after the next, attracting the attention of Ed Sheeran (amusing as himself) who then takes Jack on tour as his opening act, only for Jack to become an even greater writer of original music than Ed.

There are irresistible scenes, one after the after Jack’s attempt to play “Let It Be” to his distracted parents, the withering patter of a talent agent (Kate McKinnon) as she assesses Jack’s look (“You are skinny … yet somehow round”). And the global blackout that wipes the Beatles (and Coca-Cola), Oasis and anything that directly comes from The Beatles, (oh, and out goes the death sticks that are cigarettes also) from history.

But Jack finds himself cynically packaged as a product by his slick new manager (Kate McKinnon, doing her best with a pantomime witch of a role). And he realizes, belatedly, that all he really wants is artistic credibility and the love of Ellie (Lily James), the girl who believed in him back when he was average.

Patel and James play the standard-issue love story with touching conviction. Still, maintaining a rooting interest is a tall order.

And finally, Yesterday finally comes down to whether Jack can get up the nerve to tell his lifelong best friend, Ellie Appleton (Lily James), that he, you know, likes her that way, while she wishes he were still a failed musician and could be with someone as modest and mousy as she is.

NEGATIVE THOUGHTS:

The movie has a story about being lifted from obscurity and then facing trouble at the top that will be familiar to fans of music biopics, such as this year’s Rocketman and Bohemian Rhapsody, and the formula is usually a crowd-pleaser. However, while some critics have praised Yesterday for its charm and jukebox soundtrack, others have lambasted it for failing to live up to its potential. But at the heart of the film, it is not about The Beatles, but in fact, the torments of a struggling musician and missed opportunities for saying ‘I love you’ to his childhood love.

ALSO…

The film takes a seriously wrong turn, such as an awful surprise cameo near the end and an unexplored argument about whether imitation Beatles is better than no Beatles at all.

FINAL VIEWS:

Curtis isn’t the director of Yesterday; but the script only shouts Curtis’ writing style to great effect, while Danny Boyle has been brought in to lend his shallow virtuosity behind the camera, and the pair succeeds in filming an enjoyable catchy film that showcases one of Britain’s best-loved bands.

If you are not a fan of The Beatles then the premise of the film will not drag you in. But, if you are lookin’ for a dose of humor and consider the greatness of the Beatles, then this is your film.

And Culturedemandsgeeks does wonder, what if The Beatles never formed?

Would the world be just a grey dull smear on the selfish human horizon with no happiness (also, no coke in too?).

5/5STARS