Hollywood, as most of us, has an incredible fascination with time travel or alternate realities if you will, and with this we gravitate to films like these. So when I saw my first trailer of "Yesterday", I just had to see this since the storyline looked too intriguing to pass up. And besides, Danny Boyle directed the film which definitely wooed me into the theater.
Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) is a struggling singer-songwriter in a tiny English seaside town whose dreams of fame are rapidly fading, despite the fierce devotion and support of his childhood best friend and manager, Ellie (Lily James). Then, after a freak bus accident during a mysterious 12 second global blackout, Jack awakens to discover, through conversation, that The Beatles have never existed...and he finds himself with a very complicated problem, indeed. You see, as Jack starts singing one of the Beatles songs, "Yesterday", everyone wonders where he got the inspiration to write such a beautiful song. He tells them that the Beatles wrote it and they respond, who? And when he starts singing other Beatles' songs, everything simply starts snowballing. So with this new fame, he is subsequently offered a record deal in Los Angeles by manager Debra Hammer (Kate McKinnon). Ellie has to stay in England because of her teaching job, so Jack takes his buddy, Rocky (Joel Fry) with him to L.A. to help him out. How is Jack going to justify his desire for fame when he is using music that has been created even though in this new reality the music never existed?
Others to round out the cast are Ed Sheeran as Ed Sheeran, Alexander Arnold as Gavin, Harry Mitchell as Nick, Meera Syal as Sheila Malik, Jack's mom, Sanjeev Bhaskar as Jed Malik, Jack's dad, Sophia Di Martino as Carol, Vincent Franklin as Brian, Ellise Chappell as Lucy and Michael Kiwanuka as Michael Kiwanuka.
This was whimsically directed by seasoned, consummate Danny Boyle ("Scout" (TV movie) '87, "Shallow Grave" '94, "Trainspotting" '96, "A Life Less Ordinary" '97, "The Beach" 2000, "28 Days Later..."'02, "Sunshine" '07, "Slumdog Millionaire" '08, "127 Hours" '10, "Frankenstein" '11, "Trance" '13, "Steve Jobs" '15, "T2 Trainspotting" '17) plus others, TV and shorts. As with his other films, Boyle has the innate ability to pace and stage his films with delineated precision. The characters in his films come alive because how he gets his actors to emit the emotions needed to make the story sing. I always look forward to a film he directs, because he is so distinct in his style. He chooses his projects very carefully, as he and other directors should do. There are some similarities between this and his "Slumdog Millionaire" in that both center around young Indian guys and both are striving to succeed in a world where people aren't accommodating them. It was solidly written by seasoned writer, Richard Curtis ("The Tall Guy" '89, "Bernard and the Genie" (TV movie) '91, "Four Weddings and a Funeral" '94, "Bean" '97, "Notting Hill" '99, "Bridget Jones's Diary" '01, "Love Actually" '03, "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason" '04, "Private Radio" '09, "War Horse" '11, "About Time" '13, "Trash" '14, "Red Nose Day" (TV movie) '16, "Mama Mia! Here We Go Again" (story) '18) plus TV and shorts, based on a story by Jack Barth and Curtis. By his very resume, this writer is a common staple writer of English screenplays--mostly comedic, but not entirely. Since Boyle has also directed many English based films as well, it was inevitable that these two filmmakers would be working together. Without spoiling any of the plot, there are a couple of places that weren't explained enough, where if explained would satisfy the moviegoer a bit more, however did this cause a riff in the script or the enjoyment of the story? Not at all. Curtis is a very talented screenwriter who knows how to write a tight, cohesive, well thought-out story and this film is no exception. As far as the alternate reality, if I had to akin this to any other film, it probably would be "Back to the Future II" about Marty McFly going into a warped alternate reality of Hill Valley and what it became due to changes in the past. If you like this writer's style, his "The Little Mermaid" has been announced. If I had to choose the strong performance in this, it would be Himesh Patel as Jack. His performance was captivating as it was entertaining.
If you like whimsical, funny films with an alternate reality bent to it, you'll revel with this one. If you liked "Slumdog Millionaire", you'll love this. And hey, you even get to hear a lot of Beatles music which a definite plus. A great film from a great director and solid writer.
Out of 4 Stars: 3.5 Rated: PG-13 116mins.
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