This week Universal Pictures and Working Title released their Beatles inspired Music and Romance movie “Yesterday”, produced by Danny Boyle (Shallow Grave, Trainspotting, The Beach, 28 Days Later, Slumdog Millionaire, 127 Hours, Steve Jobs) and Richard Curtis, the Oscar-nominated screenwriter of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Love Actually and Notting Hill.
‘Yesterday” is a rock-n-roll comedy about music, dreams, friendship, and the long and winding road that leads to the love of your life. It stars Himesh Patel in the role playing Jack Malik for his movie debut, he plays a failing singer-songwriter from an English seaside town whose dreams of stardom are fading after 10 years of no success, despite the fierce devotion and support of his childhood best friend and manager Ellie played by Lily James (Baby Driver, Cinderella, Darkest Hour, Downtown Abbey).
As the story goes, Jack Malik is hit by a bus in a freak accident during a mysterious global blackout, soon after waking up he discovers that The Beatles, amongst cigarettes, Coca-cola and Harry Potter have never existed. After confirming that no-one has any clue who they are he then gets the idea to try his hand at performing songs by the greatest band in history to a world that has never heard them.
While at first, his unsupporting parents dismiss “Let It Be”, Jack shortly becomes an overnight sensation with a little help from an actual living superstar, Ed Sheeran. The story intertwines Jack’s rise to stardom and his pursuit of Ellie by whom he’s been silently in love with since a child. We seem him eventually suffer extreme guilt for the fame he gains writing the songs, and he fears one day someone will out him. However, when he’s confronted with this situation it doesn’t go as you expect.
The concept is an innovative idea, and while there was a great sense of humour and well played a part by Patel and James the overacted supporting roles such as the evil manager played by Kate McKinnon and the guest appearances from Ed Sheeran felt undercooked at times. However, in all the movies quick humour made for a highly entertaining watch.
