What would happen if there was a world where The Beatles didn’t exist? That’s the question Yesterday, a film directed by Danny Boyle poses to the audience.
The film stars Himesh Patel as struggling musician, Jack Malick, and Lily James as his supportive girlfriend/manager, Ellie Appleton. One day, while riding his bike home, their is a blackout. Jack is hit by a bus during the blackout, and wakes up later in the hospital. He has several months of recovery time, and finally comes home. His friends give him a welcome home party, and he receives a special gift. It’s a guitar to replace the one that was destroyed in the accident. Jack picks up the guitar, and begins playing Yesterday. His friends like the song, and ask if he wrote it. He’s puzzled by this, and says its one of the most famous songs of all time, by The Beatles. His friends say who? Jack is astonished at this. He is further shocked, when he begins to play the opening chords of Let It Be, and it is interrupted and nobody recognizes it. He later looks up The Beatles, but gets nothing but articles about the bug. He then goes to his album collection, and finds none of the groups albums. He then frantically puts post it notes, all over the wall, of all the groups songs, that he can remember. Jack later performs a few songs on the internet, which become popular. He is approached by a record producer named Gavin, played by Alexander Arnold. Jack and his girlfriend do a few recordings, of The Beatles songs.
Later Jack is approached by Ed Sheeran. He asks him to go on tour with him. Jack agrees and the tour is a success. While touring, Ed challenges Jack to a songwriting contest. Ed writes a nice little song, and Jack writes a piece, called The Long and Winding Road. Ed says he can’t write anything like that, and congratulates Jack. Later Ed Sheeran’s manager, Debra Hammer, played well by Kate McKinnon; introduces herself to him, telling him, she wants to manage him. She bluntly tells him, that she will manage his career and that she and other music interests, will take most of his money. Jack agrees, given the gloomy alternative, that Debra gives him. She then sets up a meeting with record company executives, about his first album. They ask Jack about titles for the album. He suggests SGT. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band and The White Album. Both of these are dismissed, and they come up with the corny and self serving title of Jack Malick: The One and Only.
Jack goes to a small beach town, to premiere his album. Before the concert, Ellie tells him she’s seeing someone else, because she doesn’t want to stand in the way of his career, and he doesn’t love her. She tells him she seeing Gavin, his former record producer. This breaks his heart, which shows when he’s performing the song Help, which he performs by mainly shouting. After the song he shouts help me. It also shows the guilt he feels for getting money from songs that he didn’t write. After the concert, he is approached by a couple, who say they love his songs, and they also remember The Beatles. Jack thanks them and the couple give him a piece of paper that will help him.
The piece of paper has an address written on it. The person living in the house goes by the name, “John From Liverpool”. He is played by Robert Carlisle, from the show, Once Upon a Time. In this reality, though he is John Lennon, but not the internationally famous founder of the group. He’s just a man who led a happy life, with his late wife, Cynthia. The only piece of advice John gives Jack is to tell the woman you love, I love you, as often as possible. He also says to tell her in front of others.
Jack performs his concert, and takes John’s advice. Ellie has been at the concert. He puts her image on the big screen and says she’s everything to him. He also sheds his guilt, confessing that all of the songs are not his, but were written by The Beatles. He further instructs his best friend, Rocky, played by Joel Frey, to allow free downloading of all The Beatles songs. Ellie and Jack get married and have kids, and all is right with the world, almost. The Beatles now can be found on an internet search, but Harry Potter is missing.
All of the principles are good in the film. Hamish Patel gives a quality performance as Jack Malick. He shows Jack as a perplexed and tortured musician. At times he seems to be the only sane character in this film. Kate McKinnon as Debra Hammer, is the complete opposite of Jack. She is greedy and self serving, but also brutally honest. It shows that McKinnon has acting talent, because it takes a lot to play bad rather than good. Lily James is best in the beginning, supporting Jack struggling career, and at the end, when she shows her love for Jack. Throughout the film Elle only wanted Jack the simple kind man, not the one changed by his undeserved success.
Danny Boyle has conveyed through Yesterday that as The Beatles song says “All You Need is Love”.This song is performed in part in the movie. It has a marching band, with Debra looking on from backstage, asking, “Are we paying these people? The message of the song, and the addition of the band doesn’t click in Debra’s cash register mind. It provides a moment of levity. Boyle also pays tribute to The Beatles first film, A Hard Days Night. He has a scene where Jack Malick, is being chased by his female fans; a scene that opens their film.The film could have been a musical, but it works well in this format. It’s premise may be an unreality, but there are more than a few people who don’t appreciate The Fab Four. This could be because of people’s musical tastes. It could be because their songs aren’t played on the radio, as much, particularly their early songs. This film is unique and should do a great deal to get out the message that The Beatles still are the greatest band in modern music history.