A day in the life
In “Yesterday,” only one musician knows the music of the Beatles
Once you get past its bizarre and rather silly premise — that, after a worldwide event, seemingly only one man on earth remembers The Beatles and the hugely influential 1960s British rock act’s catalogue of masterpieces — “Yesterday” does, well, come together.
That “Yesterday” is so enjoyable is in no small way attributable to the two-headed creative beast that is writer Richard Curtis (“Four Weddings and a Funeral,” “Love Actually,” “Notting Hill”) and director Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire,” “Trainspotting,” “28 Days Later”), who’d never before collaborated on a feature film.
Considering that “Yesterday” is a little clunky down the stretch, it’s hard to go so far as to compare this new cinematic partnership to the musical one shared by the legendary songwriting duo of John Lennon and Paul McCartney. However, the BoyleCurtis dynamic likely was a more-collaborative one, “Yesterday” obviously benefiting from the strengths of both film veterans.
This is no long, winding road but instead a largely easy-breezy magical mystery tour of sorts.
It begins by introducing us
to Jack Malik (Himesh Patel), a struggling singersongwriter wasting away in an English seaside town. While he has a few friends who demand to hear his catchy “Summer Song” whenever he plays out and a champion — and devoted manager — in longtime bestie Ellie (Lily James), the masses just don’t gravitate to his music.
After a particularly deflating day performing to almost no one in a small tent at a festival gig that initially had greatly excited Jack, he tells Ellie that it’s over, that his success should have come by now and it would take a miracle for his career to take off at this point.
“This is the end of our long-and-winding road,” he tells Ellie, who does her best to convince Jack to keep at it.
Well, it may not instantly seem like a miracle to the bike-riding Jack when he is hit by a bus during a strange worldwide blackout, but the accident will have ramifications for him far beyond a few lost teeth.
Given a beautiful guitar as a get-well gift by his friends, he announces that such a wonderful instrument deserves a wonderful song and proceeds to play them the McCartneypenned “Yesterday.” Ellie and Co. apparently are unfamiliar with the tune and thus are understandably astounded. (Well, one pal says that while it’s not Coldplay, she likes it — an example of the kind of humor that makes Curtis’ script so endearing.)
Jack takes to Google, quickly confirming that, no, The Beatles never existed. The Rolling Stones and many other familiar acts yes, The Beatles no. (That also, sensibly, means no Oasis. Sorry, fans of the brothers Gallagher.)
Seeing an obvious opportunity, Jack works feverishly to remember the lyrics and chords to as many of the Fab Four’s songs as possible, and he gives away demos of some of “his” new songs at the wholesale warehouse where he works.
The songs are really good, so Jack starts to garner a little attention, and a performance of “In My Life” on a local TV catches the ear of British superstar singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran (playing himself ).
Ed invites Jack to open for him on a tour starting in just a few days. Because Ellie can’t give up her teaching job, she won’t go with him, and Jack turns to his benevolent-but-wild chum Rocky (Joel Fry of “Game of Thrones) to be his roadie. (He doesn’t steal the show, but Fry is good for a few laughs throughout “Yesterday.”)
As the first tour stop is Moscow, Jack busts out “Back in the U.S.S.R.,” and the crowd goes wild for it. Ed is impressed, too, but he begins to grow a little suspicious of Jack’s seemingly incredible gift for composition. He challenges Jack to a spur-of-the-moment songwriting duel, and, after Jack returns from a few minutes alone to close the contest with “The Long and Winding Road,” Ed concedes before a vote of those around to hear both songs can be taken.
Jack soon gets an aggressive new manager in the not-so-complimentary Debra (a generally hilarious Kate McKinnon of “Saturday Night Live”), and he begins to make the album that will change the world.
However, the fame and impending fortune comes with downsides, and Jack appropriately feels increasing guilt about taking credit for writing these songs, even if they never were written in this reality.
He begins to wonder if, perhaps, all he needs is love — the love of Ellie, who has confessed her feelings for the somehowdumbfounded lad.
Patel (the BBC’s “EastEnders”), who sounds more like George Harrison when he performs “Here Comes the Sun” than he ever does Lennon or McCartney, is well-cast. He shares a nice chemistry with the likeable James (“Downton Abbey,” “Baby Driver”) and is easy to root for, even when the attention starts to fray his edges.
That Curtis and Boyle never have him go down the typical self-destructive rockstar road littered with sexanddrugsisanice surprise. Also, pleasantly, Curtis’ script never really tries to explain what happened to alter the course of history — Jack finds folks also don’t remember some other key inventions we won’t spoil here — nor, blissfully, does he put the word “multiverse” anywhere in it. (And now we offere apologies to fans of quantum mechanics.)
Ultimately, “Yesterday” is a love letter to The Beatles, and it works because, once you accept the supernatural aspect of the premise, it’s easy to believe the group’s music is so strong that it would make waves today if it were being absorbed for the first time.