A One Mann’s Movies review of “Yesterday” (2019).
Bob the Movie Man’s Rating:
Certification:
UK: 12; US: PG-13.
There are some movies that when released simply don’t need a big marketing campaign. Just a few words of description of the plot are enough to put it on your “must see” list.
For example:
A Teen gets thrown back in time to 50s small town America, and has to get his parents to fall in love with each other to save his very existence.”
Or how about:
A small town sheriff has to fight not only the killer shark he knows to be feeding in the area but also the greed of local businessmen who want to keep the beaches open.”
And not forgetting (sic):
An amnesiac with a 15 minute memory recall tries to track down the man who raped and murdered his wife.”
You get the idea. So how does this grab you?
A struggling musician has a cycling accident during a freak global blackout and wakes to a world where noone other than him remembers the Beatles or any of their songs.”
When I heard this I said to myself “yes, Yes, YES”!
But would it live up to my expectations?
Hearing a classic for the very first time. Jack strums out “Yesterday”. (Source: Universal Pictures).
“It took me years to write, will you take a look”?
This is a Richard Curtis penned film, and that’s immediately enough to put a tranche of movie-goers off. But his script involvement with movies has been truly impressive over the years: from classics like “The Tall Guy”, “Four Weddings and a Funeral” and “Notting Hill”; through the first two Bridget Jones films; to the love/hate of “Love Actually” (which I do love (actually) and can watch again and again – fortunate if you are married to Mrs Mann); to Spielberg’s “War Horse”; and finally to the guilty pleasure that is “Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again” (ditto with Mrs “8 Times at the cinema” Mann).
From his canon, there are only a few films that disappointed me. “A Boat That Rocked” was a big rocky miss for me, and sexually dodgy to boot, with what was effectively a ‘comical lights-out’ attempted rape included. And “About Time” (whose review seems to have mystically disappeared from my blog): although having some memorably emotional scenes (THAT beach scene… sob!), it had inconsistencies in the tricksy time elements of the plot that never gelled with me.
All his movies have an accent on the uplifting, the positive and/or the whimsical, and I can understand why that winds some people up. If “Richard-Curtissy” was an adjective, and I think it should be, many of these films can be so classified.
Here, although again very Richard-Curtissy, he gets the mixture JUST RIGHT…. “Yesterday”, for me, was a complete joy from beginning to end.
“I sat on a rug biding my time, Drinking her wine”
I imagine Curtis getting this story from a rowdy dinner party round his gaff. He asks his guests, over the third bottle of dessert wine, to play a wild and fantastical “what if” game (in pursuit of the “very good” spare brownie of course).
At this particular event, I guess it was co-story-author Jack Barth (in his movie-writing debut) that made the successful attempt to “hog the brownie”. For the premise of “Yesterday” is quite brilliant, whilst at the same time being utterly bonkers too!
He definitely needs somebody. A heartfelt plea from Jack to the world. (Source: Universal Pictures).
“Sitting on a corn flake”.
That being said, the story is not completely original. I thought there were many similarities to the Ricky Gervais vehicle of 2009, “The Invention of Lying”, where Gervais alone finds he suddenly has the ability to tell lies, and finds ill-gotten fortune and fame as a result. Much like that earlier film, much of the joy here is in the recognition of the gift given and the dawning realisation of what this might actually mean to him. As such, I found the first half of the film a lot more enjoyable than the second.
It’s an interesting challenge to have a go at isn’t it? If you suddenly removed all access to typing “Beatles lyrics xxxxxxx” into Google, how many of the Beatles extensive discography could you a) remember the titles of and b) remember all the lyrics to? Possibly a high percentage of you might get close with “Can’t Buy Me Love”, but how about “I am the Walrus” or “Taxman”? (“Taxman” has one of my favourite lyrics of the Beatles: “Let me tell you how it will be. There’s one for you, nineteen for me”, reflecting the 95% higher rate of tax under the Harold Wilson government).
This is the conundrum facing Jack, and much fun is had with him stumbling into situations that suddenly remind him of a new track or a particular snatch of lyric.
There is of course an obvious explanation for the whacky storyline, since the hero has received a potentially serious head injury. But would the film go there? (No spoilers here).
I can’t tell you, but I know it’s mine. Jack meets up again with the lovely Ellie. (Source: Universal Pictures).
“In the pouring rain. Very strange”.
Himesh Patel is from TV’s “Eastenders” but here makes his movie debut. He is perfectly cast as Jack Malik: in the film, he’s a name about to rise from utter obscurity as a Lowestoft retail assistant to global superstardom. Patel is charming and believable as he squirms with his conscience. A surprising and touching beach scene in the final reel of the film is exquisitely acted.
The ever-watchable and utterly gorgeous Lily James here goes brunette: she was actually unrecognisable to me from both the trailer and the poster! Here she makes a very believable high-school teacher with a side-line in management and roadie-ing.
The pair are really cute together in their platonic business relationship. Jack is of course a COMPLETE IDIOT…. if, standing dripping wet at a door, Lily James appears in her pyjamas with doe-like “love me” (#editedforcontent) eyes, the idea of turning away and walking into the night again would NOT be top of my list!
I found Ed Sheeran’s cameo in “Bridget Jones Baby” to be excruciating! But here, in what is quite an extensive part, he is much, much better. I think he’s been getting lessons.
A much improved performance. Ed Sheeran as… Ed Sheeran. (Source: Universal Pictures).
“Aye, aye, sir, fire. Captain, captain”.
One of the slight disappointments with the film is that it is a Danny Boyle film that doesn’t FEEL like a Danny Boyle film. Aside from some inventive on-screen titles, I didn’t detect much of the stylisation that I would expect from one of his films. Yes, there are occasional flashes of genius – for example, the scenes where Malik is desperately trying to remember the lyrics of Eleanor Rigby, and those of him watching, big screen, his own social-media led rise to super stardom. But otherwise, the visuals and storyline are pretty linear in nature.
“And I’ll try not to sing out of key”.
Although there are cloyingly gooey bits of this film, the element that weaves it all together – such that “all is forgiven” in my book – is the magical music and lyrics of McCartney, Lennon and Harrison. (There is “Octopus’s Garden” referenced in the script, but I don’t think it’s sung. If I’m wrong and there’s this, or other Ringo-penned songs in there, I apologise for the omission. By the way, there is someone in the imdb cast list referenced as “Ringo Starr (not credited)”… if this was in there, I certainly missed it.
Was there a better year to be born that 1961? (Well, possibly the mid- to late- 50’s so you were old enough to remember more of it). But although only a child aged between two and nine during their album releases, I felt the benefit of three older siblings who WERE able to fully embrace Beatlemania. (I remember clearly being well and truly told to “SHUT UP!!” for making too much noise as my brothers and sister were trying to record the live TV broadcast – now regarded as a classic TV moment – of “All You Need is Love” onto our old reel-to-reel tape recorder!) As a result of these memories, this is music that is burned into my very soul.
And the film delights with its modern day recreations of the classic tracks and, as already mentioned, Himesh Patel belts them out wonderfully (especially, I thought, with “Help!”).
Aside from the Richard Curtissy-ness of it all, the involvement of James Corden might also put some people off: he seems to be a love/hate figure. But it’s a very small cameo. Interestingly, this performance of “Something” on his show (as featured in the trailer) never appears in the final cut. (Source: Universal Pictures).
“And, in the end”.
I can’t not give this one 5 stars. I simply loved it, and can’t wait for its general release (in the UK, on June 28th) so I can go and love it all over again. Is it technically a 5 star film? Possibly not, but sometimes you just have to go with the way a film makes you feel, not just as you walk, whistling, out of the cinema but for the whole of the next 48 hours and (I suspect) longer.
This is a film I can see appearing at 3pm on BBC1 on Christmas Day in a year or two’s time and then staying as a Christmas “must see” staple for the next 50 years, as “Love Actually” will. For the film will keep on giving and gaining new fans for as long as the Beatles music continues to thrill and, global cataclysms aside, I can’t see that fading much before the next few hundred years.
In summary, he loves it. “Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeeeeeaaaaaah“.
Trailer:
Is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ry9honCV3qc
Loved this film…..
You have to watch with a tongue in cheek mindset but just go and enjoy it.
Beatles fan or not it’s a feel good movie.
Not sure it will be a 3pm Christmas Day film but people will watch it over and over I’m sure.
Thanks Trev… due to holiday and crazy work commitments I STILL haven’t been for my repeat watch, but hope to do so soon.
Just saw it. Great one, even if it contains all sorts of plot holes.
Yep. I said that in my review of the year. Loved it (5*) when I first saw it, but watching it again, there are a whole bunch of aspects that make it a far from perfect film. Love the waving Yellow Submarine moment.