Yesterday

Grade: B

Jack (Himesh Patel) lives in Suffolk with his parents and works as a stock-boy at a Walmart-type store. He is a struggling musician, to put it very gently. At all his “gigs,” he is background music for whoever just happens to be walking by, while his childhood friend Ellie (Lily James) acts as his ever-devoted manager and roadie. One night, there is a worldwide blackout for about 12 seconds, during which Jack gets hit by a bus, then wakes up in a hospital (and a universe) where nobody remembers The Beatles except for him. Something changed his world, so to speak. Desperate Google searches only yield results about the insect or the car, and a couple other things also no longer exist that are funny and I will leave you to find out. Jack gets the idea to pass off all these Beatles songs as his own compositions. One thing leads to another, and he goes on the road opening for Ed Sheeran (Sheeran, a good sport, playing himself), then becomes an overnight phenomenon.

Director Danny Boyle (Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, Steve Jobs) adds to his busy and eclectic resume with Yesterday, written by Richard Curtis (Love Actually, Four Weddings and a Funeral). That is a good team. Yesterday has a premise that would make a fascinating Twilight Zone episode. It coasts on its conceit for a while, with varying degrees of success. I’m not sure that it’s enough to sustain it all the way through a feature-length film, and sometimes it felt like riding a bike too slowly, where the wheels start to wobble and you’re in danger of falling over. There is a poignant scene with an unexpected guest character late in the film, followed by a contrived climax where more moments ring false than true. The through-line with the love interest is herky-jerky, and then unconvincingly goes from zero to 3000 in the film’s too-hasty conclusion.

Despite some issues I had, I believe in Yesterday. This was advertised as a feel-good movie, and it will make you feel good. The performances of Himesh Patel and Lily James are utterly charming. They sell the material, and certainly help keep it going. James (Baby Driver, Darkest Hour, Burnt, Downton Abbey), in particular, impresses me more and more. Many of these classic songs, some of the best ever written, are featured, from acoustic Anthology-style softness to blaring stadium rocking volume. If there are a few incorrect notes played along the way, it just aligns with Jack trying to rely on his memory in his new Beatle-less universe. You can’t look up these chords on your phone, after all, now that there never was a Beatles.

Yesterday comes with a Pandora’s Box of burning questions, many of which don’t even get explored. Did John, Paul, George, and Ringo ever play together? Did they ever even meet? Did any of those songs get written by the original writers, and just never got released? Were they ever interested in music in this new timeline? What professions did they go into, if the music thing never worked out? Why didn’t the music thing ever work out for them? If there never was a Beatles, then does that mean they also never had solo careers? Could Jack have potentially passed off My Sweet Lord, Maybe I’m Amazed, Imagine, etc. as his own songs too? Why hadn’t the “unexpected guest character” ever heard of Jack, and what more was said in their conversation?

You will drive yourself crazy thinking about all this, but boy, I bet the crowded screenings had a ball Ob-la-di, Ob-la-da-ing at the end.

Grade: B