“Yesterday”– Movie Review

This week, I attended a New York Times ScreenTimes advance screening of the new romantic comedy, “Yesterday”, written by Richard Curtis and directed by Danny Boyle.

Synopsis

When a young man wakes up to a world where he is the only one who remembers The Beatles, can he become a music sensation?

Story

Jack (Patel) is a struggling musician.  Despite the fact that he’s been hoping to hook the brass ring of success for many years, his manager and childhood friend Ellie (Lily James) remains his biggest fan and supporter; while holding a job as a schoolteacher, she works hard to book every single performance she can grab for him, just so he’ll remain in his long-time pursuit of becoming a professional musician.  Even when Jack begins to lose faith in himself, Ellie is the one who keeps the faith in him.  Beyond being a good manager, she’s a good friend. 

When Jack thinks it’s time to pack it in, the planet earth experiences an unusual occurrence:  a worldwide blackout.  A variety of things occur when this happens, but one of them is the fact that Jack, while bicycling home, is accidentally hit by a bus and winds up being hospitalized.  After he is discharged from the hospital, he learns an unusual fact:  Jack is the only one in the world who remembers the musical group The Beatles.  Once he starts performing their songs, people believe he composed them all.  Thinking he’s written them all, they see him as a genius and soon he earns a recording contract which gains him great popularity.

As Jack heads out on the road to success, he meets such luminaries as popular music star Ed Sheeran and his manager Debra (Kate McKinnon), who sees him as the new Big Thing in the music industry.  Naturally, she gloms onto him once she realizes he’s a better songwriter than her current client, Sheeran, whom she virtually abandons in favor of Jack’s more promising career.  But as Jack’s success turns out of control, he realizes that he has turned into someone who he is not and this bothers him deeply.  Will he be able to bury these feelings and continue to pursue financial rewards or will his guilt force him to return to a world that is more in his control? 

Review

“Yesterday” is a pleasant, entertaining movie that the audience at this screening seemed to enjoy quite a bit; the film itself was enthusiastically applauded at the closing credits and when the filmmakers took the stage afterwards, they were warmly greeted with a standing ovation.  It is something of a hybrid genre: sci-fi/comedy (or sci-fi/romantic comedy – take your pick). One of the keys to enjoying “Yesterday” is buying its unlikely premise; if you are able to sufficiently suspend your disbelief for that, then it should wind up being a good deal of fun. Otherwise, it may very well wind up being a bit too hokey.  

The other key to whether or not you’ll like “Yesterday” is equally obvious:  both your knowledge and appreciation of The Beatles. Will younger people enjoy this movie, despite a limited experience of this world famous musical group?  It’s hard to say, but even if they have only a basic understanding of who The Beatles were and their impact on our culture, a younger audience might likely be able to latch onto the romantic comedy aspect of the film.  Of course, older folks – who don’t tend to go out to theaters quite as much – would have a deeper connection to this motion picture.  

Following the screening, there was a question and answer session with screenwriter Richard Curtis, director Danny Boyle and star Himesh Patel.  Curtis originally got the idea from another writer (who got a story credit on the movie). He was a big fan of The Beatles in his youth and it continued throughout the rest of his life.  Boyle contacted Curtis and asked if he had any material he should see; Curtis immediately sent him the script for “Yesterday” and Boyle wanted to make it into a film. Patel was informed about the casting and submitted an audition tape that included him singing a song by Coldplay and performing a monolog.  Ed Sheeran was not the original choice for the appearance in the motion picture; they first went to Chris Martin, who turned it down due to a scheduling conflict.