This was the film I was most excited to see this summer as I love The Beatles and it was directed by Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire”). The main concept of the film is simple enough, a struggling singer wakes up to discover that he is the only one who can remember the existence of The Beatles and their music.
Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) writes his and performs his own songs, but no one pays him much mind. He lives at home with his parents after giving up his job as a school teacher to focus on his music. He juggles the few low paying gigs with being a part time grocery worker. His manager Ellie (Lily James) is his childhood friend and seems to be the only one who truly believes in him.
Jack decides to give up his dream after another empty gig. As he rides his bike home, a global blackout occurs and is hit by a bus. After being released from the hospital, he discovers that none of his friends know who The Beatles are, Google produces no results about the band, and their discography has disappeared from his collection. Thus he decides to transcribe their music from memory and pass it off as his own.
Jack becomes a local celebrity and while being interviewed on TV catches the eye of Ed Sheeran (himself). Sheeran invites Jack to open his show in Moscow and Jack does so with a rendition of “Back in the USSR”. Music manager Debra Hammer (Kate McKinnon) signs Jack after the concert and brings him to LA where he starts recording his full length album. It does get a bit cliche after this as Jack realizes he’d rather have true love than the fame and success he thought he wanted.
I was expecting “Yesterday” to be more than a romantic comedy. Jack doesn’t deserve Ellie as she works to financially support herself and his career. Ellie manages him to the best of her abilities, but ultimately there is nothing in it for her.
Jack is the worst as he lives with his parents, but does nothing to contribute in any shape way or form. He is selfish and it isn’t until he has everything he thought he ever wanted that he truly considers everyone else’s thoughts and feelings. “Yesterday” had the potential to be so much more than what it ended up being. Jack finds success through someone else’s hard work, does nothing to push himself forward and still manages to get the woman in the end.
There was a moment in which Jack discovers that Oasis doesn’t exist either and this was an opportunity to explore what could have happened to the bands influenced by The Beatles had they never existed. Instead other random things also no longer exist and there is no explanation as to why.
Still it was fun to see how someone could exploit an event like this were it to occur. “Yesterday” knows that it’s appealing to mainly Beatles fans and the filmmakers are clearly relying on their music to distract movie goers from said plot holes. It was fun to see Beatlemania strike again even if it was aimed at one guy with a guitar. It’s also fun to think that Beatles music would still resonate as much today as it did in the sixties (and I mean in terms of people hearing it for the first time).
“Yesterday” was not the film I was expecting it to be. It would have been more interesting I think, had the filmmakers also explored what a world without The Beatles would mean for the artists inspired by them and the music industry as a whole. The disappearance of Coke, cigarettes and Harry Potter were great for the laughs, but ultimately contributed nothing else. I’m more upset about this film now that I’ve had time to think about it. “Yesterday” will keep you entertained, and if that’s enough for you great. I had my issues with “Yesterday” immediately after watching it, but mainly I was still imagining a world without The Beatles and Harry Potter.
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