YESTERDAY : Tuesday 16th July 2019.

I finally got around to seeing 'YESTERDAY' this week, some three weeks after its Australian release, which carries an M Rating. Here this musical fantasy comedy is Directed by Danny Boyle (of 'Trainspotting', 'The Beach', 'Slumdog Millionaire', '127 Hours', '28 Days Later' and 'Sunshine' fame amongst others), and is written by Richard Curtis (he of 'Four Weddings and a Funeral', 'Notting Hill', 'Love Actually', 'The Boat That Rocked', 'War Horse' and 'About Time' fame also amongst others). The film saw its World Premier screening at the Tribeca Film Festival in early May, was released in the UK in late June, made for US$26M and has so far grossed US$84M, and has received mixed or average feedback from Critics.

Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) is a struggling singer-songwriter from Lowestoft in the county of Suffolk located in eastern England, whose dreams of musical fame and fortune are rapidly in decline, despite the unwavering devotion and support of his childhood best friend, Ellie (Lily James). Ellie is a school teacher and surrogate Manager to Jack who manages to score him a gig at the Latitude Music Festival which he is initially elated about, but after the fact is depressed because no one but a bunch of boozehounds and kids saw his performance. On the drive back after the gig, Jack threatens to give up his musical aspirations but Ellie is able to convince him otherwise.

One night while riding his bike home after a pub gig Jack is knocked off his ride in a head on collision with a bus during a mysterious global blackout that lasts for just twelve seconds. Jack comes round in a hospital bed a day or two later with no memory of what happened. He is comforted by Ellie who pokes fun at him because of his two missing front teeth, his fat lip, broken ribs and bruised and bloodied face. Upon release he catches up with some friends and Ellie at a beachside pub, where his friends present him with a new guitar to replace the one damaged in his earlier bike accident. His friends ask him to sing them a song. He sings them 'Yesterday' by The Beatles, and after, the three friends look on astonished at the beautiful song he has just performed, asking him when he wrote that. Jack retorts that The Beatles of course wrote it, but they all come back with 'who'? Looking on a little perplexed, he quickly dismisses their ignorance as a joke.

Later that day he visits Ellie at home to double check on her knowledge of The Beatles, and again she feigns ignorance. Jack hurries home, goes to his computer, punches The Beatles into Google, and the search reveals beetles. He tries again, with the same result and then a third time. He then tries various derivatives also with no success, even punching in Oasis to reveal a desert watering hole rather than the Manchester rock band of the '90's said to have been heavily influenced by The Beatles. It quickly dawns on Jack that in the new world post his bike accident, no one has ever heard of The Beatles. And so Jack begins performing their songs mostly in down beat clubs and pubs claiming he wrote them, but still with little success, until he is heard by a local music producer Gavin (Alexander Arnold), with whom he records a demo CD.

Following a spot on a local TV programme on which Jack performs live, he is contacted by Ed Sheeran who saw his performance and was able to lay his hands on a copy of his demo CD. Ed rocks up one evening unannounced to Jack's place and is invited to play as Ed's opening act in Moscow in four days time - next Tuesday. Ellie declines to join him, saying she has to work at her day job as a school teacher, so Jack's totally unreliable and somewhat roguish roadie friend Rocky (Joel Fry) travels with him instead. Jack goes down a storm in Moscow and has the packed audience eating out of his hand, particularly with his rendition of 'Back in the USSR'.

After the hugely successful Moscow gig, Jack is signed by Sheeran's agent, Debra Hammer (Kate McKinnon), and rapidly rises to global fame off the back of The Beatles extensive catalogue of songs which Jack has had to remember the music and lyrics to, remembering that if The Beatles never existed there are no recordings, no archival footage, no song sheets, no music and no lyrics recorded anywhere. His new Agent summons Jack over to LA to negotiate a deal and to meet with top executives in the recording industry, media people and image consultants etc. in readiness to launch Jack on a partially suspecting world as the biggest thing ever to hit the global music scene.

After a series of meetings in LA and more scheduled for the end of the week Jack makes a hasty retreat back to Liverpool to meet with Ellie and to conduct some more Beatles research in the hope of jogging his memory of their songs lyrics. He travels with Rocky and visits Strawberry Field, Penny Lane and the grave of Eleanor Rigby - all landmarks immortalised in the words and music of classic Beatles tracks. At a party at Jack's home, Ellie confesses that she has always loved Jack ever since they were at Junior School together, but she knows that his feelings for her aren't reciprocated. Jack tries to summons the words to express his feelings but is pressured into rejoining the party downstairs.

The next evening Ellie seeks out Jack at his hotel. They have dinner together, eat lots, drink more and then retire to his room. They embrace and kiss but then Ellie shies away telling him that she is not interested in being his one night stand before he does a bolt back to the glitz, glamour and temptations of LA. Early the next morning, Jack and Rocky pursue Ellie to Liverpool Lime Street Train Station where she is waiting to get a train back down to Suffolk. Ellie reminds Jack about making a choice between her and his career. Already running late for their scheduled flight Jack returns to Los Angeles heartbroken.

Jack flies back into LA and attends a marketing meeting at his record label in which a decision is to be made about the title of his first double album release. He had already suggested 'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' or 'The White Album' or 'Abbey Road' but instead the marketing guru's come up with 'One Man Only' pushing his solo and independent song writing talents. Jack is becoming increasingly disillusioned and persuades Debra Hammer to launch the album with a performance in Gorleston at a beachside hotel back in Norfolk, England - his former stomping ground. In the meantime Jack has a guest appearance on the James Cordon Show, in which Cordon reveals that there are a couple of guests in the audience who claim that Jack's songs are not his own.

Whilst waiting to go on to the roof top stage at Gorleston, Rocky approaches Jack saying that two crazies are demanding to see him, and hands over a model of the Yellow Submarine. Whilst Rocky has no clue about the significance of the model, Jack instantly recognises it and is shocked. Fearing the worst Jack nonetheless agrees to meet them. In walk two Beatles fans who tell him they know he plagiarised the songs; however, not being able to sing themselves they thank him, fearing the music of the Beatles would have been lost forever had it not been for him. Upon leaving they give him a hand written note on a scrap of paper and saying that their research had been exhaustive. Jack goes out onto the roof top stage and launches his album to a huge crowd gathered on the beach in front of the hotel, in which he belts out 'Help'.

The next day Jack is travelling in a taxi to the remote beachside cottage address given to him by the two Beatles fans who visited him the day before. It is the home of John Lennon (an uncredited Robert Carlyle), who has lived to be 78 and is still going strong. Jack asks John if he has led a successful life and John responds that he has led a happy life with his wife, and his sailing and his artistic talents and tells him to chase the one he loves and to always tell the truth. Jack hugs John for reasons that are unclear to the now unrealised musician and 20th Century icon, and leaves. 

Ed arranges for Jack to perform at Wembley Stadium which he does by belting out several Beatles classics. After his performance Jack confesses to the massive audience that he plagiarised the music that was written by John, Paul, George and Ringo (which of course means nothing to the crowd) and that he is simply a conduit to keep their music alive. He goes on to display Ellie on a giant screen behind him oblivious to the fact that she is up on stage remotely, but she hears him saying that he loves her, is sorry for fooling everyone with his songs and then has Rocky upload the songs free to the Internet, sabotaging the record release and sacrificing tens of millions of dollars in sales in the process. Jack and Ellie marry and have a family together, Jack becomes a music teacher and they live happily ever after.

I quite enjoyed 'Yesterday' I'd have to say and perhaps just a little more than I had expected going in. The film will doubtless please Beatles fans keen to hear some of their catalogue of more memorable tunes sung with conviction by a passable Himesh Patel. It's a fun feel good movie that does leave a satisfying taste in the mouth after the credits have rolled, told in a simple, no nonsense uncomplicated albeit fairly formulaic manner about a struggling musician; the girl who loves him but he doesn't get it; boy literally stumbles across worldwide stardom, fame and fortune; loses girl in the process; and then all comes good in the end. Patel, Sheeran and Fry give the standout performances in this film with equal amounts of comedic and emotional heft, while James and McKinnon are left largely undercooked and in reality not that interesting, albeit necessary to move the story along. In this parallel universe or whatever it is (which is never explained further except for a twelve second global blackout caused by a solar flare) we also learn that Coca Cola, cigarettes and Harry Potter also have never existed. If, however, two other people have memories of The Beatles, then presumably they can also recall these other products, and if there are two, how many more are there in the global population that also share those memories, and those others seemingly lost from human consciousness forever. Lots of unanswered questions mostly on a cosmic scale, a couple of half baked   storylines masquerading as romantic turmoil and the music PR machine, all just about saved by a solid debut from the lead Actor and a strong self depreciating cameo from Sheeran.

'Yesterday' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-