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It's weird to think that there was a time when a film was released in cinemas, packed with strangers, call coughing and throwing their popcorn around. But what's even weirder is the thought that a film exists which combines the biggest British film director right now with the biggest British film writer. I'm talking of Yesterday, which was directed by Danny Boyle and written by Richard Curtis.
Yesterday is a film that seems to have slipped under the radar somewhat; it opened to relatively lukewarm reviews, with critics seeming somewhat indifferent. And honestly, I can kind of see why. It's not a bad film, but it's not the best work of either Danny Boyle or Richard Curtis either.
Yesterday sees warehouse worker by day/musician by night Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) wake up in a world where the Beatles don't exist, after his road accident with a bus happens to coincide with a global blackout. The establishing of this strange new world is a lot of fun too, as we learn over the course of the film that not only did The Beatles never form, but there was also no Oasis, Coca-Cola or Harry Potter either. It makes you wonder what a world without these major cultural landmarks looks like. Without Harry Potter, did the Young Adult film adaptation craze of the 2000s never take off? Without Coca-Cola, does Santa still wear green?
It also forms somewhat of a plot hole, as you would assume that if the entire world blacked out, even for a few seconds, that it would cause major ramifications. What happens if people are thrown off life support in the hospitals? Do they all die?
And speaking of plot holes, what about the pair from Liverpool (one who is played by Sarah Lancashire), who remembers The Beatles? How does she remember? Surely that means there could be potentially more people who do, and would take a more antagonistic approach to Jack using The Beatles' songs?
Despite all that, however, there are some great pieces of humour dotted throughout (no surprise given that it's written by Richard Curtis). I laughed at Jack's constant attempts to sing Let It Be being interrupted by door bells and ringing phones, for example. And Ed Sheeran's suggestion that 'Hey Jude' should instead of 'Hey Dude' for added relevance was very funny too.
Ed Sheeran is certainly no actor though, to say the least. He forms somewhat of an extended cameo here, dropping in and out of the film, and his acting is a little on the wooden side. He delivers his lines in a somewhat monotone intonation, and you kind of wonder why they didn't just draft someone in to play a fictional celebrity musician.
Himash Patel and Kate McKinnon (who plays Jack's L.A. manager Debra Hammer), on the other hand, are brilliant. Both add some real depth and character with their portrayals, and are consistently engaging throughout the movie. They feel perfectly cast for their roles, and really help to bring the film to life.
Something which I found interesting was how this film never fully resolved the overall plot. Jack may have openly confessed to the songs not being his own, but by the end of the film he's still stuck in a world where the Beatles never actually formed - and you've go to wonder, how do Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr and John Lennon (the latter who is in the film, played by Robert Carlyle) feel about being named as the real people behind the songs? In a world where they never wrote or sung them? The cynic in me wonders if they're leaving these unanswered questions open for a future sequel, which I would watch, but if no sequel is planned then it does make the screenplay feel a little unfinished.
Overall, Yesterday is a solid film. It's far from either Danny Boyle or Richard Curtis's finest efforts, but it provides a fun piece of entertainment, with some good humour and obviously great music. The script does contain some plot holes, however, which are never explained in the finished film, and Ed Sheeran's acting is questionable at best. It's a film that could use a follow-up entry, and I for one would be interested to see where the story could go next.
This movie doesn't work. Despite Lily James and Himesh Patel both being extremely attractive. Despite the presence of Kate McKinnon. It doesn't work for reasons I find interesting, though: this movie tries to be a rom-com for straight men but misunderstands the formula and doesn't gender-swap everything it needs to gender-swap.
The wish fulfillment of a rom-com often centers on the double-binds faced by women. But the fantasy in this movie is all about the double-binds that straight middle-class men face: the ideal man is supposed to Do Great Things but believing that you can marks you as foolish, narcissistic, selfish, and dangerous. The ideal man wants a family, but is expected to bread-win for it, meaning grind at work to the exclusion of actual participation in the family. And so Jack gets fame and greatness without having to admit he believes himself capable of it, without sacrificing his ties, without hurting anyone else for it. And because he leaves music as the greatest song-writer of all time, he gets to be a full participant in family life without being marked as unambitious and lazy.
There's no fantasy fulfillment if you put yourself in Ellie's shoes: her only apparent desire is Jack's full romantic attention, and her only obstacle is that he doesn't choose to give it to her. Her emotional arc and actions don’t make much sense. This by itself shouldn’t be a fatal flaw - in lots of romances, we take the perspective of just one lead and the other acts in whatever arbitrary way will create the most exciting obstacles and resolution for the perspective character.
But here we have the first structural problem: the script and the acting invites the audience into Ellie's subjectivity, and not Jack's. Ellie has clever lines, shows a thousand emotions a minute on her face, has the best damn outfits, and still looks super cute woken up in the middle of the night: who wouldn’t want to be Ellie? Who doesn’t feel alongside her? The only emotions we see in Jack before the accident, on the other hand, are bitter and burned out. We don’t learn anything about his personality… ever, really. This blank masculinity can be functional (if boring to me) in an action movie where the conflict is 100% external; it lets most anyone (specifically anyone who is comfortable projecting themselves onto a generic emotionless dude, which I am not) see themselves in the hero. But for the purposes of a romance, where so much of the conflict lives inside the protagonist, we need to be invited into Jack’s heart, and we aren’t.
The second structural problem is that the conflict doesn’t really have much to do with the romance: Jack is basically facing a work/life balance problem that has nothing to do with his personality or Ellie’s. The tension in a romance comes from the powerful forces keeping the couple apart. The yearning that drives the romance forward can only be as strong as the obstacles. The most powerful force keeping the leads apart is typically their understanding of who they are and what’s possible for their lives.
In Yesterday, though, the most powerful force keeping the leads apart for the first half of the movie is that Jack is an oblivious idiot, with no explanation for why he’s so dumb, no explanation for why Ellie has never made a move, and no explanation for why he doesn’t respond positively when she finally does. And then for the second half, the key force keeping the leads apart is that Jack is busy with work. These are really weak forces, and so we never get a chance to really feel their longing for one another and ache for them to get together - Lily James’ deliciously horny slack-jawed looks occasionally get around the weakness of the script here for Ellie, but we never get a sense that Jack is all that into Ellie. (The movie does work to get the audience to be into Ellie, but we never feel that desire through Jack, and we need to for there to be a romance story.)
So the romance doesn’t work - there are a bunch of other places the movie could maybe go to salvage itself. But it doesn’t go there. The implications or mechanics or emotions of the change to the timeline aren’t much explored - the two other characters that remember the Beatles get a brief moment to share a compelling immigrant/exile feeling, but we don’t see this in Jack and it isn’t explored.
The question of whether John Lennon is better off in this world, of how and why fame changes people, is maybe interesting: I found the moment when he opens the door shocking and powerful, but the scene with him gets pretty uncomfortable - he has a single line that vaguely hints at acknowledging that the real Lennon was a violent, abusive, addicted, awful person, but he still serves as the Magical Old Wise Man. If in this universe, a lack of fame lets him turn himself around, questions around the dangers of fame could maybe give the movie a reason to exist? Though I think I’ve seen enough versions of that movie.
The movie doesn’t even really revel in the music - we don’t get any classic Hollywood musical choreography, there are no callbacks after the opening credits to the Beatles’ inventive musical movies. We’re expected to come into the movie already worshiping the Beatles: the movie doesn’t make a case for the power of the music.
And if you don’t come in worshiping the Beatles, if you just really love some of their tunes and are wowed by some of their innovations in the recording studio, if you’ve listened to their whole catalog and know actually quite a lot of it is unequivocally bad (Dig a Pony!?), or beyond their musical skill to execute (Paperback Writer), if you know your music history and the contemporary Black artists the Beatles ripped off, if you understand that the difference between your Mozarts and your Salieris is 99% luck & timing & marketing & connections & being the right race/gender/sexuality/age/etc, and hardly at all about some ineffable genius of the music, if you are at all engaged in the world of art and have a sense of the truly unimaginable volume of breathtaking work being produced by vast numbers of people who will never go on a talk show, then the logic of Yesterday will make as little sense to you as it did to me. This randomness might be just as true, even if the odds are better, of finding love as it is of finding fame - I want to see the fantasy musical rom-com that explores that.
Imagine a world where The Beatles never existed. The Fab Four. It's a strange thought, but in "Yesterday," Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis attempt to give us a glimpse of what life would be like if those four Liverpudlian lads never came together. When a freak accident causes the world to forget about The Beatles, struggling musician Jack Malik (Patel) decides to pass off their songs as his own, leading to worldwide fame and success. But at what cost?
While the movie is set in the picturesque Suffolk, England, Boyle's direction tries to balance the quaintness of a small village life with the glitz and glamour of Los Angeles. The problem is that the movie doesn't fully explore the world without The Beatles and instead opts for a basic romantic comedy with musical interludes. This isn't necessarily bad, but the premise could have been so much more. Patel and James have good chemistry, but the weak love story and a clunky story arc involving Ed Sheeran's character prevent the movie from reaching its full potential.
Patel delivers a strong lead performance, and the musical performances are well done. However, the movie's visuals lack appeal, and the overly simplistic and thin narrative struggle to sustain the 2-hour runtime. The jokes about a world without The Beatles are the best part of the movie, but the clichéd romantic story and lack of character development prevents the movie from being truly effective.
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Imagina un mundo donde The Beatles nunca existieron. Los cuatro fabulosos. Es un pensamiento extraño, pero en "Yesterday", Danny Boyle y Richard Curtis intentan darnos una idea de cómo sería la vida si esos cuatro muchachos de Liverpudlian nunca se hubieran juntado. Cuando un extraño accidente hace que el mundo se olvide de The Beatles, el músico en apuros Jack Malik (Patel) decide hacer pasar sus canciones como propias, lo que lo lleva a la fama y el éxito en todo el mundo. ¿Pero a qué precio?
Si bien la película está ambientada en la pintoresca Suffolk, Inglaterra, la dirección de Boyle intenta equilibrar la singularidad de la vida de un pequeño pueblo con el brillo y el glamour de Los Ángeles. El problema es que la película no explora completamente el mundo sin The Beatles y, en cambio, opta por una comedia romántica básica con interludios musicales. Esto no es necesariamente malo, pero la premisa podría haber sido mucho más. Patel y James tienen buena química, pero la historia de amor débil y un arco argumental torpe que involucra al personaje de Ed Sheeran impiden que la película alcance su máximo potencial.
Patel ofrece una actuación principal sólida y las actuaciones musicales están bien hechas. Sin embargo, las imágenes de la película carecen de atractivo, y la narrativa demasiado simplista y delgada lucha por mantener el tiempo de ejecución de 2 horas. Los chistes sobre un mundo sin The Beatles son la mejor parte de la película, pero la historia romántica cliché y la falta de desarrollo del personaje impiden que la película sea realmente efectiva.
A quirky but underutilized idea drags this otherwise enjoyable film down a notch. Plenty of The Beatles covers should keep the casual viewer interested until the end.
Script: 7
The basic plot is a pretty weird idea, that translates surprisingly well to screen. I still can't help but think this movie exists just to have a reason to promote and release another Beatles cover album.
The film dares to make fun of the Beatles in a lovingly way that shouldn't make hardcore fans jump up and down in anger.
There are some strands of plot that hang around for quite a while but that the script does very little with. Overall, the script presents a lot of potential but doesn't go as far as it could. It stays in the shallow waters.
The plot remains surprisingly straightforward with quite a shallow emotional range and not any major twists. There's also a logical problem with the fact that Beatles' music would probably never become so big in today's landscape.
Main cast: 8
Patel is adorably lovable as an underdog musician with a great voice but not a very pop star like demeanour. He feels awkward with Lily James through most of the film. James plays this part the same way she plays most similar parts.
Supporting cast: 6
Ed Sheeran makes a small and rather comedic appearance as himself. It's pretty superfluous and takes away focus from the plot. The other supporting actors are OK.
Protagonist & antagonist: 9
Jack is an unlikely person to become a pop star due to his insecurity, his looks and his nice personality. He struggles to decide whether he wants to be the greatest pop star ever or whether to keep his dearest people close to him.
The entire recording business Jack is caught up in becomes the ultimate antagonist alienating him from his family, friends and his only true love. It's effective and sadly quite true.
Production: 8
Danny Boyle plays around with angles and shots and keeps the film tightly together. The Beatles' songs and song titles are seamlessly incorporated into the visuals.
Post-production: 7
The Beatles' music takes centre stage, in new versions that are largely faithful to the original ones. There are a few Ed Sheeran songs thrown in there as well, which just feels odd.
Atmosphere: 8
This is a lighthearted and silly romantic comedy with the emphasis on comedy and Beatles covers.
This is a cute film with a pretty simple message and mostly feels like a tribute and love letter to the Beatles.
Pacing: 7
There's a slight drag before the film moves on to the final act, but other than that Patel, the music and the humour carries it forward
Expectations: 8
I expected this film to be something else than it turned out to be. I certainly thought it would do more with its idea, even if it delivered a largely enjoyable experience.
Replay value: 8
As a summer movie filled with wonderful music, this one is easily re-watchable.
Score: 76/120
I found some things off-putting about this movie. In particular the whole concept is really something you would see in a typical boomer comic. That, and once the film started it became quite apparent that the main character, Jack, is a bit of a Beatles fan boy. Which is just... I don't know, I feel like - especially by today's standards - the Beatles are a bit mediocre to be that into. Do you know what I mean?
I kept watching both because I was already a little interested and I'd already seen the main actor sing, and I was actually refreshingly surprised by how good his vocals were. Another thing I really appreciated, is the way they made Jack... actually feel bad about, and acknowledge, that these songs are not his. He has a nightmare of being found out about at one point, and iirc he dreads similar things happening later too, once or twice.
There were times where I felt Lily didn't need to be in a scene, but she was kind of crucial considering the ending so I guess it's fine. I'm kind of ambivalent about whether this movie was good or if I liked it or not, but I think I do lean a little towards saying I liked it. If nothing else I did learn a little about the Beatles, which I guess is cool. I am pretty into music so I might as well know stuff about the Beatles, too.
A great film for Beatles fans, and fun to see people discovering their songs for the first time, but the love story seemed too contrived and unearned. I'm not sure 20 years in the friend-zone can ever be overcome. Can it? And while I loved the "alternate-ness" of this reality, the film itself left me with too many unanswered questions about how this alternate reality came about. I wanted to know "why" no one remembers the Beatles or any of the other things that are missing in this reality. Haven't cigarettes been around forever? And Coca Cola started in the late 1800s--does that mean the power outage somehow affected things that happened decades ago? Centuries? Sorry, I'm th kind of viewer who wants answers. To me, there's no worse cop-out than when a writer or filmmaker leaves an ending "open to interpretation" or expects the viewer to "come up with his own answers." That's not how storytelling is supposed to work--when I write a book, I have an ending in mind. If I didn't, and left it ambiguous, my readers would howl and downvote me on Amazon. So pick and ending and support it with your arguments. Anyway, sorry about the rant. I wanted to like this film, but I kept waiting for the real Beatles to show up and claim their work. I wanted answers, but the way the filmmakers left things open-ended seemed less satisfying for me. Watch it for the music and Himesh Patel's amazing, heartfelt performance, and ignore the trite, unearned love story angle and Kate McKinnon's thirty-ninth over the top performance.
Review by Nancy L Draper
VIP8BlockedParent2019-07-03T15:45:06Z— updated 2020-01-04T20:40:35Z
I've read the reviews, this film is getting a love-it or hate-it reaction. First, I think a lot of the bad press comes from people judging it out of its genre. It is a romantic comedy, so those who gave it 1s and 2s (out of 10) because it was "just a love story with music", need to adjust their expectations, appropriately. Secondly, this is under-spoken, self-deprecating British humour (that I adore) but this is often baffling to American audiences (who are use to being fed broad comedy, caricatures of life - see note on Kate McKinnon, below) and this fuelled another flurry of low ratings. So, you can see where my review is going. I loved this movie. The love story was inevitable (it WAS the point of the movie). The premise was unique (and it provided a great reoccurring joke). The theme of Friendship Zone vs Romantic Interest was executed perfectly by the deep, emotional vocabulary of the performers (although, the 14-seconds-that-changed-the- world is as much of a leap as Lily James, made average with fuzzy hair, being left in the friendship zone, in any time line). Himesh Patel made a smooth transition from the Soaps to the Big Screen and his musical skills were perfect for this. Lily James brought such vulnerability, energy and strength dealing with unrequited love . As much as I appreciate the comedic talents of Kate McKinnon, I wish she would find the real people behind her caricatures. She needs to find her dramatic chops which, I believe, are there to be discovered. But the glue for this film was the music. As with BOHEMIAN RHAPSODY, I was transported to my youth when so much of this music was imbedded, word for word, note for note. I fully expected the ending to flip back to Jack waking in his hospital bed, having lived a dream, and now seeing Ellie with different eyes and not missing his moments, cue same ending from there on. I give this film an 8 (great) out of 10. My friend gives it a 9 (just short of perfect). [RomCom around Music]