Director: Danny Boyle
Cast: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Ana de Armas, Kate McKinnon, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Ed Sheeran
Rating: 12A
Running time: 116 mins
Release date: 28/06/2019
What would we all give to have the musical and songwriting talents of Lennon and McCartney or any number of legendary songwriters? Well, Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis certainly have decided to give something back in their new collaboration YESTERDAY, the latest Working Title / Universal production.
Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) is a struggling musician who plays the lower end of clubs and festivals, thanks in part to his ever-devoted manager-cum-childhood sweetheart, Ellie Appleton (Lily James). A gig at the Latitude Festival is not something that inspires faith in his talents or the future and his best friend Rocky (Joel Fry) invites him to hang out backstage just as he gets fired as roadie for one of the headliners.
“Miracles happen,” proclaims Ellie in ever-supportive mode, just before a freak solar flare renders the Earth temporarily dark and leads Jack to collide in the dark with a bus. Recovered and out of hospital, he meets up with Ellie and other friends at a seaside bar, when Ellie gives him a new guitar out of sympathy. His friends request a song on the guitar, to which he happily plays a near-perfect rendition of YESTERDAY, only to find that none of his friends have heard of The Beatles, setting in motion a chain of events that will make him into the biggest modern pop star in the world.
Director Boyle’s latest feel good film, based on a story co-written by Richard Curtis and Jack Barth, fits in perfectly with other Working Title hits. Lily James clearly seems to be the new face of the long-running British company, having already shone in last Summer’s MAMMA MIA sequel, HERE WE GO AGAIN, as the young Meryl Streep / Donna Sheridan. As always, James shines throughout in this heart-warming fairy tale of wish fulfilment, which is part fairy-tale and part love-story.
Although the film never quite goes the whole hog with the joke (what would life be like if The Fab Four weren’t unthinkably existing in the world?), it maintains a consistency with the comedy once the gag is up and running. Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar provide amiable support as the parents and Joel Fry almost steals the show as Rocky, along with Kate McKinnon as a money-obsessed AOR person.
If you were a little sick of Ed Sheeran dominating the charts left, right and centre, this film might not do you any favours, but his appearance in the film does give him pause as he shows a genuine sense of humour, particularly when he challenges Malik to a song-writing challenge after he invites him to a gig in Moscow.
Fans of The Beatles will certainly sing along once again to all those great tracks over the years and Curtis also taps into the logistics of what the creative process was behind all those legendary lyrics, also raising the question of what some of them mean.
Critics have certainly got their choice of words for YESTERDAY, so little left except to say….
GET BACK to your local cinema – and happily enjoy YESTERDAY.
What do you think of the casting for the movie? Will you be watching it when it arrives in cinemas? As always, we like to know your thoughts, so leave a comment below, tweet us @filmandtvnow or drop us a comment on our Facebook page.
