Starring Himesh Patel, Lily James, Ed Sheeran, Kate McKinnon. Directed by Danny Boyle.
By the end of the late 80s the British film industry was in dire straights. Except for Merchant Ivory productions and the work of Lord Attenborough and David Putnam, there was no ‘industry’ to speak of. The 90s changed that, with emerging voices bringing in a new era. In the UK, screenwriting wunderkind Richard Curtis wrote Four Weddings and Funeral and Notting Hill to great acclaim, and Danny Boyle directed Shallow Grave and Trainspotting also to great acclaim. And now we have the collaboration of them both.
Yesterday is the textbook definition of a High Concept Movie. A High Concept movie is one that can be explained in a sentence so that audiences can grasp what it’s all about very easily. Case-in-point: Arnold Schwarzenegger and Danny DeVito are twins = Twins. Cowboys and Indians in the Towering Inferno = Die Hard. Yesterday is also a simple concept – what if only one person ever remembered The Beatles?
The film from the off is a melding of Boyle’s style and Curtis’ writing, though it leans into Curtis more than Boyle. Himesh Patel is charming in the central role of Jack who finds himself given the chance to live his life as a successful musician when he passes off The Beatles back catalogue as his own, his sort of permanently exasperated act is in line with Hugh Grant or Dohmnall Gleeson is previous Curtis ventures.
Lily James is also delightful as rock and oh-so-obvious-it-hurts love interest Ellie, here she gets to show what she can do with a screenplay that actually treats her like a comic performer without every sacrificing her humanity.
Although the supporting cast – as in most Curtis’ scripts – get the best laughs namely Joel Fry, though some are from Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar as Patel’s parents.
The film’s charm will work depending on your threshold for The Beatles, if people waxing lyrical about how it’s the best music in the world sounds annoying, or if you prefer other songs by them than their mainly slower ones, you might find that your patience begins to wear thin after a while.
That being said, the film is entirely charming and it’s thanks to Boyle’s snappy direction, he clearly enjoys the story and the visual flair shows he’s invested in it, perhaps because it’s a more universal story than his others, about how music can open your heart to possibilities and such.
Admittedly, much like Curtis’ About Time, there is little care taken to the more confusing aspects of it’s science fiction concept. The fact that certain things have left the world including The Beatles opens up a butterfly effect of things that one scene in particular makes clear.
Perhaps because ultimately the film has no interest in being an exploration of removing something and seeing what happens as it does about embracing those songs, and following a perfectly likeable main character through this bizarre concept that never fully resolves itself.
The film itself is like the end of Hey Jude – a little bit cheesey, but all the same a welcome piece of fluff you can enjoy without ever really having to think hard.
