Summary: Across the Universe, there’s a blackout. The Blackbird of death visits Nowhere Man Jack Malik, but gives him a pass. As an attempt to Get Back to Yesterday, The Night Before his accident, Jack realizes “The Beatles only exist In My Life” and says, “Hello, Goodbye” to his Paperback Writer plans. Suddenly as a one-man combination of Lennon/McCartney, Jack has a Ticket to Ride on The Long and Winding Road to success. He can’t Let It Be; he wants to live A Day in the Life of a superstar. Meanwhile, Jack man, you need Help! I understand your Revolution, but your friend, Ellie, She Loves You, man, and if you don’t make a move You’re Going to Lose that Girl.
“All else being equal” doesn’t apply to The Beatles. It’s like saying, “everything in the world was exactly the same except New York City didn’t exist.” There exists a sphere of influence so profound it is impossible to remove the one without completely changing the other, dig? The Beatles influenced music, culture, style, and thought to such an extent that you genuinely have to ask yourself the question: do you want to exist in a world where Yellow Submarine was never even a song, let alone a feature film? I think not.
On the other hand, unique screenplay ideas are rare, so even when one is executed with shallow consequence, I have to laud the effort. And, indeed, Yesterday, a film in which The Beatles disappeared everywhere from history except in the mind of 4th rate songster Jack Malik (Himesh Patel), has a unique and wonderful premise. If you know and respect The Beatles, you’ll probably want to see where this film is going.
After another lackluster solo gig, Jack has given up on music. The only person who continues to believe in him is his manager and decades-old friend, Ellie (Lily James). Still in the shadow of his “last performance,” Jack bikes home when –for twelve seconds- all the lights go out in the entire world and he gets hit by a bus. When he awakes relatively unharmed, he slowly realizes that he and he alone has memories of The Beatles … and, check it out, he just “happens” to be a struggling musician. Well, what would you do?
Suppose of the eight billion people on the planet, you are the only one who remembers “The Mona Lisa.” Would you try and paint it and claim as your own? What if you were a genuine painter? What if “The Mona Lisa” was already your life’s obsession? Well, you can see where this is going … Jack -by himself- becomes John, Paul, George, and Ringo … and quickly realizes that unique access into the intellectual museum containing the greatest art in modern history isn’t enough by itself; even The Beatles had luck. And is 2019 the correct era for “Love Me Do” and “Hey, Jude?”
So Yesterday immediately hurls two big questions at the audience: What do you owe the world when you have unique knowledge? …And, are The Beatles dated? And, oh yes, will Jack be able use his newfound celebrity to find true love? I cannot tell you how let down I was on that last point. I’m among the suckers for Love Actually and Richard Curtis is my favorite writer of film romance. The romance in this film behaved like a dog who doesn’t quite know how to play dead, so he lies on the ground and writhes a little hoping to a smile out of his master. Ellie is in love with Jack; that part was clear. We have no idea what Jack’s feelings towards Ellie are until well into Act III.
The film works best when it answers the “How” question. How do you blast the trumpet of knowledge when you’re holding a kazoo? Let me put it this way: suppose you’re a lifelong baseball fan, but never showed any talent for the sport. Then one day you wake up and you can smack a Nolan Ryan fastball 500 feet. How exactly do you impart the knowledge of this skill to anybody who would care? Jack makes several attempts at “his” “new” song “Let It Be” for his parents who are so used to their son’s mediocrity they make him restart four times and mishear the title as “Leave It Be.” Getting Jack for a response, he eventually gives up without even getting to the chorus.
I can still remember the words of a friend from decades ago who commented on The Fab Four: “For every emotion in the human psyche, The Beatles have a hit. Not just a song, a hit.” The Beatles have been praised so thoroughly and justifiably that it’s hard to imagine somebody can give a new take, but this is the gift of Yesterday. Beatles fans may just get goosebumps about the idea of presenting The Beatles to the world. And those of us who love Beatles music will actually hear ourselves remembering lyrics internally and subconsciously adding harmonies non-existent in solo performances. It’s very possible I haven’t appreciated The Beatles enough.
The premise of Yesterday is on the one-hand a unique joy and on the other implausible beyond mere sci-fi. It’s like if Marty had used the time machine in Back to the Future to kill Hitler and returned to exactly the same reality. Yes, I’m done with the similes. I’m neither The Beatles nor their writing equivalent by any stretch. Back to the Film … the more I focus upon it, the less I like it, which is awful because there is something truly magical about reinventing The Beatles for a new generation. If you wear blinders, Yesterday is a fantastic and adorable film; that’s mostly where I want to be.
♪Yesterday
All I did was review Child’s Play
Now my pleasure is in disarray
Oh I believed in Yesterday
Suddenly,
An idea above John Wick 3
Came to theater near me
Oh Yesterday
Was there to see
Why it had to blow
I don’t know
I couldn’t say
There was something wrong
In this ill-thought out screenplay♫
Rated PG-13, 116 Minutes
Director: Danny Boyle
Writer: Richard Curtis
Genre: Music appreciation
Type of being most likely to enjoy this film: Beatles fans
Type of being least likely to enjoy this film: Sci-fi fans
♪ Parody Inspired by “Yesterday”
