Yesterday Review
PG-13: For suggestive content and language
Production Company: Universal Pictures, Perfect World Pictures, Working Title Films
Run Time: 1 Hr and 56 Minutes
Director: Danny Boyle | Screenwriter: Richard Curtis
Cast: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Ed Sheeran, Kate McKinnon
Jack Malik (Himesh Patel, BBC's Eastenders) is a struggling singer-songwriter in a tiny English seaside town whose dreams of fame are rapidly fading, despite the fierce devotion and support of his childhood best friend, Ellie (Lily James, Mamma Mia! Here We Go Again). Then, after a freak bus accident during a mysterious global blackout, Jack wakes up to discover that The Beatles have never existed... and he finds himself with a very complicated problem, indeed.
For a very fun and alluring premise, one of the major factors that holds Yesterday together as an entertaining -- if not somewhat enjoyable -- romp is the cast. The lead, Hamish Patel, delivers a charming breakthrough performance. While his character of Jack is written thinly -- which I will get to later -- Patel does a good job steering a lead role. He has a charming presence and when he sings, you grin… like, the kind of grin you give to your basic college student who knows how to play guitar and belt out “Wonderwall” like it’s the only song in the world that matters. While he’s good, Lily James is the star who makes this truly fun and enjoyable. James has proven countless times how much of a fireball of charisma she holds, and with that she delivers some of the funniest lines in the movie. Her cheerful energy mixed with her unexpected delivery makes for the most heartwarming moments, especially when on screen with Patel. Not only is she an abundant joy to watch, but she also elevates Patel’s performance.
I was also fond of the supporting cast, like Kate McKinnon, who is once again doing her shtick where she’s quirkly honest and delivers some lines in the best way she knows how to make ‘em humorous. Even Ed Sheeran, who is here for a good surprising chunk of the movie, garners some laughs.
My praise of the cast is entirely attesting to Boyle’s direction. When he puts his name on a project he does the best he can with his cast and his stylish direction. He has the cast, for sure… and that’s the only positive criticism I have for Yesterday.
There have been so many cinematic collaborations lately that on the surface sound incredible, but ultimately result in disappointment. Just recently we had Steve McQueen and Gillian Flynn collaborate on Widows and, while that movie is good (if not just slightly above average), it didn’t live up to its potential. Here, you have director Danny Boyle collaborating with screenwriter Richard Curtis. Both are recognizable names who have done extraordinary work, yet, like Widows, this never lives up to its full potential. Hell, this doesn’t live up to anything at all.
It’s been a while since Richard Curtis wrote a feature film. He’s a great screenwriter when he hones in all of his talents, but Yesterday seems like the bare bones of a Curtis script that needed several re-drafts to live up to the potential of something that could’ve been more than just a mediocre music movie. If you’ve seen any rise-to-fame musician/romance movie ever, then you really don’t need to see Yesterday, for it hits all the familiar beats of a musical movie without distinguishing itself from the large crowd and never takes advantage of its enticing science fiction premise.
We follow a struggling singer/songwriter named Jack Malik who doesn’t know how to kickstart his career, for all he sings are covers of songs with his acoustic guitar and his manager/best friend Ellie helps him each step of the way. When things start to look down for him, he crashes into a bus in the middle of a blackout across the world. When he comes to, he wakes up in an alternate world where The Beatles don’t exist. So, he does the one thing that any person with that power would do: CAPITALIZE!
Unfortunately, fame and his obliviousness drives him away from the woman who loves him and he has to make sacrifices to win her back. You know what kind of movie this is. You’ve seen one Richard Curtis movie, you’ve seen them all. He often squanders (for two movies now) his science fiction concept in order to service a generic romance plotline. The stars carry it, but the script is so uneven and bland, even down to the characters, that there’s not much to recommend about it.
Right in the first five minutes, you’re unable to resonate with or root for Jack as a character because the film immediately pours a vat full of cliches on him, each identity strictly taken out of every music movie ever. His boss hates him, his manager is in love with him, and he feels like a failure. You see him as a musician playing small gigs but you don’t see his ordinary world and his actual struggle enough to make you care. Even then, you don’t care about his conundrums because they don’t make sense. Jack either has to work in a superstore part-time so his schedule is lax enough to perform gigs OR go back to teaching kids how to play music. Ellie (who says this, by the way), encourages him to not go back to teaching because it’ll “drain the energy and imagination” out of him so…
Really, movie?
While that’s revealed towards the latter half of the movie as a flashback (and by that point you’re already asking so many questions), it’s not enough to distinguish Jack as an underdog to root for.
The set up has decent moments but the tone is way too silly and nonsensical, even before the fantastical element comes into fruition. It doesn’t do enough to establish the alternate universe Jack is living in. Then, more plot holes are made for the sake of cheap comedy when it addresses that items such as Coca-Cola, tobacco, and cultural properties doesn’t exist. Why? What’s the bigger picture? The movie answers those questions with:
Unlike a lot of rise-to-fame movies, Jack is not egotistical. But Richard Curtis intends to service the generic romance/musician movie plotlines and hopes that people are entertained, even though he’s inadvertently squandering his interesting premise. This is the writer of Love Actually, a movie that used all the romance tropes in the book -- and added more -- and it took the world by storm. I didn’t know he’d take that formula and run with it for the rest of his career, even with original stories that would have benefited WITHOUT IT. Because of that, it makes you loathe the characters more than you already do.
To reiterate, the actors are great. But each character is written so thinly that by the time Kate McKinnon comes strutting in with black heels and a leopard print coat as the evil and bossy manager (a trope that even big Oscar-winning movies such A Star is Born can’t seem to stray from), it solidifies how onenote the movie is overall, even down to Boyle’s direction which is limited to the basic studio flair. If the direction of Danny Boyle is unable to compensate for the uneven script, then you know that’s a problem. None of the shots or sequences capture the energy the film is supposed to deliver. While it’s never dull, his direction is so hollow and very unlike him. Only in sporadic moments does the shot composition breathe some life, but it’s not often enough.
With every potential route the story could’ve gone given its premise, Curtis can’t seem to not twitch at his keyboard or typewriter or whatever he uses to screenwrite and go, “BUT ROMANCE! I GOTTA ADD ROMANCE! I’M THE LOVE ACTUALLY GUY, IMMA USE ROMANCE IN EVERYTHING I DO!”
I cannot emphasize enough how we need more female screenwriters because the men writing female characters are embarrassing. Lily James’ Ellie has to be one of the most selfish and narrow-minded love interests I’ve seen in a movie this entire year, for she lacks the common sense of taking advantage of an opportunity when it’s right in front of her. She guilt trips Jack -- her best friend and client -- to choose between her and his career when she EASILY could’ve stopped hers to join him. Take it from somebody who was given an ultimatum this year to choose between their education and career, and tell me how selfish that is. RIGHT BEFORE he gets big and famous, Ellie pulls him aside and reveals her true feelings for him. When Jack invites her to join him across the world, the reason why she can’t is because she’s a school teacher EVEN THOUGH SHE ENCOURAGES HIM TO NOT TEACH KIDS. To quote the great Cat in the Hat:
After Rocketman, a music film with style and a well-told story, or even Teen Spirit which was a generically-plotted rise-to-fame fairytale that was distinguishable by the genre-mixing covers of popular songs, had some consistency and were charming enough to stay on track. Here, the entire premise is derailed by a romance that is so weak. Even the way Jack covers The Beatles songs is so bland, for he just SINGS the songs on a guitar or a piano and doesn’t do anything new to make them HIS own. Besides, songs such as “USSR” wouldn’t even really blow up today because of the outdated lyrics. I have nothing against The Beatles, but the movie doesn’t capture the wonder of what makes The Beatles so special at all. If you want a movie that actually managed to do that, watch Across the Universe or Yellow Submarine.
🎶Hey Boyle, why is this so meh? 🎶
🎶Took a bland script, and made it duller 🎶
🎶Richard Curtis, I expect much better from you 🎶
🎶But you wrote a bad script and it’s very gutter, gutter gutter gutter GUTTER POO! 🎶
Rating: 2/5 | 47%
