“Yesterday” is the new film from acclaimed director Danny Boyle (“Slumdog Millionaire,” “Trainspotting,” “127 Hours”); it’s also his first collaboration with writer Richard Curtis (“Notting Hill,” “Love Actually,” “Bridget Jones’ Diary”). In it, a struggling singer-songwriter named Jack Malik gets into an accident when a mysterious worldwide blackout results in him getting struck by a bus. When he comes to, he slowly realizes that the entire world has lost all memory of the Beatles and their music—as if they had never existed.
And, in this alternate universe fantasy, they never did. Not only that; a few other things are different: cigarettes and Coca-Cola, for example, never came into being. Jack then is faced with the question, as a struggling singer-songwriter who worships the Beatles and their legendary catalog (as any struggling singer-songwriter is required to do): Do I pass off their music as my own? Obviously, the answer is yes, or this review would never have been written. Soon enough, Jack catches the attention of one Ed Sheeran, and things begin to snowball for his career.
It’s an interesting premise, a kind of classic “What If?” scenario. Unfortunately, it goes nowhere particularly interesting or surprising. Curtis plays with the idea a bit, superficially mostly, and for laughs, but then it just runs out of steam. There’s points to be made but either they were too lazy or it didn’t occur to them, or maybe they didn’t think it was interesting enough, but what they left in isn’t very interesting either. There’s rich satire to be made of the music industry, just for starters. A marketing meeting from hell and an aggressively apathetic-to-music manager played by Kate McKinnon is about all we get. Even McKinnon’s character is a bit of a cartoon, as if the actress felt she needed to give the fans what they want: outsize lines with outsize behavior. But a more restrained performance, a sleazier and more sinister turn, might’ve been more enriching to the material.
It truly is a fantasy because it skirts questions and topics that would arise in its scenario. Would Jack’s race be a factor in his rise to fame? Would the songs alone be enough to propel an unknown to the top of the charts in such a small amount of time? Considering they now have thousands of other potential distractions of entertainment to contend with? Also, wouldn’t the arrangement and production of the songs have to be different to click with a crowd in 2019? These are songs, after all, written and designed for audiences in the ’60s and ‘70s. These are never brought up, but there’s a scene about recalling the lyrics to “Eleanor Rigby” that, while shown in an interesting fashion, ultimately leads nowhere. There’s a comfort in knowing that the beloved catalog of the Beatles will ensure goodwill from a good portion of your audience, but relying on it to carry undercooked parts is negligent. Thus the film is partly a musical with nostalgia for ammunition.
It’s unfortunate because Boyle does direct with his usual effective style: lots of energy, fun with dutch angles, colors pushed to saturation points. He has a lot of fun with montages (except one dreary one where Jack walks through some infographics like some ad for a new app). Himesh Patel plays Jack, and while he mostly does a fair job he’s not really given a lot of heavy lifting to do.
“Yesterday’s” worst offense is its love story. Something you’d expect Curtis to handle well, it’s a warmed-over dud that especially does no favors for the excellent, radiant Lily James, here saddled with a thankless role as a doting, fawning friend who’s been in love with Jack her whole life and said nothing of it, waiting for him to notice her. And this is a fantasy, remember, so somehow he doesn’t, even though they’ve been friends since they were seven. Seven! It’s such a hoary cliché I was half-expecting them to admit to being virgins. There’s a false binary pushed of having a fabulous pop star career versus staying in Suffolk and leading a simple, fulfilling life. There’s a real clunker of a grand gesture at the climax with some added douchey behavior considering your object of affection is in a relationship. But who cares about the collateral casualties of star-crossed love?
It’s too bad “Yesterday” didn’t have enough conviction with its premise to go the distance, even with already-there ideas and scenes that would’ve been more rewarding avenues to go down. It could’ve been a fantasy that would’ve been well worth the journey, instead of an occasionally charming but ultimately disappointing meander through “What if.”
“Yesterday” will have sneak previews on July 15 and 16. Its regular run begins on July 24.
