Yesterday a Charming Delight

 

YESTERDAY (2019)

Directed by Danny Boyle

Universal Pictures, 116 minutes, PG-13

★★★★★

 

 

 

I have friends who can't stand fantasy films. If that’s you but you’ve never seen Yesterday, set aside your bias and give it a try. It is a fantasy film, but one directed by the talented Danny Boyle who gave us such films as Slumdog Millionaire and Trainspotting. If you’ve seen either film, you know that Boyle has a soft spot for underdogs.

 

Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) decidedly falls into that category. He is a British-Indian folk musician in Suffolk who writes pleasant songs. No one notices him except starry-eyed Ellie Appleton (Lily James), his manager by night and a math teacher by day. Jack is relegated to gigs in cafes with hissing coffee machines and festival side tents attended by a handful of people who wandered in and children playing amidst hay bales. Ellie is secretly in love with Jack, but their relationship is more that of brother and sister.

                                             

Jack knows he's never going to make it, but the unexpected happens. As he is riding his bike home from his announced last concert, the lights go out for 12 seconds and he is hit by a bus. It leaves him with a smashed guitar, two missing teeth, and quite a few abrasions and bruises. Although he didn’t know it at the time, the 12-second blackout was worldwide. When Jack gets out of the hospital, friends throw a party for him and Ellie surprises him with a new guitar. He is badgered to perform a song and he reluctantly sings “Yesterday.” Everyone is gobsmacked that he wrote such a fantastic song. He thinks they are joking, but they have never heard of The Beatles, nor has anyone else. All Beatles records are missing from his collection and music stores. There are a lot of other things of which no one has heard, an amusing detail I will let you discover for yourselves.

 

What would you do if your favorite musical act disappeared, and you remembered the lyrics to their songs? Before Jack can say, “I believe in yesterday,” his friend Gavin (Alexander Arnold) has distributed a demo of Jack channeling Beatles songs as if he wrote them. Jack becomes an overnight sensation. Even more improbably, Ed Sheeran shows up at his door and asks him to open his tour that begins in Moscow. Although most of the audience is too young to remember communism, they go wild when Jack sings “Back in the USSR.” He and his stoner roadie Rocky (Joel Fry) are swept up in a popular culture maelstrom. Los Angeles promoter Debra Hammer (Kate McKinnon) pursues Jack like a shark that has spotted a seal. Ed and Jack become buddies who challenge each other to a songwriting contest; Jack wins with “The Long and Winding Road!” Soon, Jack is headlining at venues like Wembley in London and Principality in LA, as Debra vigorously and cynically packages Jack as an idol. (Revel in the hysterical putdown of marketers.)

 

But what of Jack’s old friends in Suffolk? What of Ellie? Jack lives in constant fear that his ruse will be exposed. Actually, two people do remember The Beatles, one of whom is played by the actress Sarah Lancashire (TV imports “Coronation Street” and “Last Tango in Halifax.”) Their reaction is surprising, as is the result of a tip Jack is given. The fame rocket continues to burn, complete with a rooftop concert analogous to The Beatles’ swan song. In a wry twist (that’s also poignant), Jack’s show is atop a closed hotel in the fading English resort town Gorleston-on-Sea.

 

Jack is awash in madness similar to the height of Beatlemania. He’s not even sure who he is anymore, a sentiment shared by his old friends, especially Ellie who is ready to move on. Once again, the question arises: What would you do? Embrace fame and fortune or be true to yourself?

 

“Yesterday” is a truly delightful film. It is indeed a fairy tale, though it was billed as a romantic comedy. It raises questions like those above, but is also a back door slam at the lure of commodified culture and how easily manufactured fads degenerate into mass hysteria. When you listen closely you realize that Jack is a mediocre singer, but director Boyle and Patel excel at casting illusions. Great credit goes to Ed Sheeran, the true musical talent, who is admirably self-effacing. Lily James is cuddly cute in a good way. Best of all, the movie leaves you humming tunes written by four of the greatest songwriters in Western history.

 

Rob Weir