Yesterday: A Fluffy Fable

I have been seeing the trailer for Yesterday for months and every time it came on, the release date of June 28 felt an eternity away. Thankfully, June 28 finally arrived, and I saw the movie today. And of course, I had built it up in my head way too much. Now that I've seen it, I wish I could go back to yesterday when I was still giddy with anticipation.

For those of you who haven't seen the trailer, a quick primer: the movie is about a struggling British musician, Jack Malik (Nimesh Patel), who wakes up from a bike accident to discover that he's the only person on the planet who remembers The Beatles. At first he is shocked and confused; then he realizes this means he can now pass off their music as his own. Within a few months, he has skyrocketed to fame as the greatest singer-songwriter the world has ever known, but of course fame brings its own problems, and he certainly starts to yearn for yesterday, when his troubles seemed so far away.

It's a thoroughly delightful premise, but it's all given away in the trailer, and it turns out there isn't much more to it in the film. There's the romance plot with his friend and manager, Ellie (Lily James), which goes through the necessary twists and tangles. There are the random British friends and family, familiar to anyone who has ever watched a movie written by Richard Curtis. Overall, this is an extremely British movie, which means that it has enough charm to make up for its other deficits. There was one scene where two characters were talking in a cafe, and although there was a lot of important emotional dialogue, I found myself transfixed by the bottle of Ribena on the table. There's something you don't see in New York everyday.

Lily James is probably the best part of the movie, wearing her heart on her sleeve at all moments and having to be teary-eyed for two hours as the man she loves spends most of the time ignoring her for fame and fortune. Nimesh Patel, while not as emotive, does do a wonderful job of recreating these songs that we all know and love. Watching him furiously try to remember the lyrics to Eleanor Rigby is quite amusing, because let's be honest, all of just wail "Aaah look at all the lonely people" and then go eerily quiet. Let's also take a moment to cheer that an Indian man was casually chosen to be the lead in a major movie that could easily have been played by any white dude. It's the one thing the Brits do well - Indians have so taken over England that they no longer quibble about just randomly having brown people star in their TV shows, and now movies, without any further comment on their Indian-ness. I guess it's the least they could do after all those years of colonial rule (yup, I went there).

The screenplay is typical fizzy and light Curtis fare, and while it has clever moments and jokes, it mostly feels a bit predictable and played out. It's a brilliant premise to start with, but then relies on cliches for a resolution, and fizzles out towards the end. The music is unsurprisingly excellent, but usually only when Patel is playing in intimate settings or in recording booths for the first time. Once he becomes a star, every concert feels terrifically loud and rushed, and you can start to sense why uptight adults may have objected to The Beatles as being loud and noisy when they first debuted. Director Danny Boyle certainly tries to keep things interesting by filming scenes at odd angles or using strange visual tricks to liven up the proceedings, but they don't really fit the traditional storytelling and stick out like a sore thumb rather than compel you to keep watching.

There's also a lot of Ed Sheeran in this movie, which feels terribly odd and will immediately date a film that could have otherwise been ageless. I'm a fan, but Curtis seems to be pushing the case that Sheeran is the successor to The Beatles, and that is an argument I am not going to endorse. The man is a great songwriter, but he would have been much better deployed as a cameo in this film (which is what the trailer implied) than an actual supporting actor. Or at least not playing himself, so some of the hubris wouldn't feel so overblown. Also, I love Kate McKinnon, but her character in this film is a real oddball and she made some very distinct choices that felt like she was in a whole different movie. Perhaps it was startling as she was the only American - I guess I needed her to be more British to fit in with the rest of the vibe.

Yesterday is a movie that starts out with a great idea but fumbles the execution. It has a good cast and arguably the world's best soundtrack, but the storyline meanders and either takes very familiar beats or entirely too weird beats, neither of which feel particularly satisfying. However, I will continue to hum Yesterday to myself on a daily basis. And perhaps that's why we needed this movie. To remind everyone that no matter how bleak the present seems, we can always continue to believe in yesterday.