Review: Yesterday

Image courtesy of Universal Pictures.

Danny Boyle's "Yesterday" is undoubtedly one of the filmmaker's more lightweight efforts, most likely stemming from the fact that his source material this time is Richard Curtis - screenwriter of "Love, Actually" and "Notting Hill" - rather than, say, Irvine Welsh ("Trainspotting") or Vikas Swarup ("Slumdog Millionaire").

The picture asks us to imagine a fantastical scenario - one night, the power across the world goes out and when it comes back on, The Beatles's music has been completely erased from history, and seemingly only one person - a down-on-his-luck songwriter named Jack Malik (Hamesh Patel) who gets into a bicycle crash at the time of the blackout - remembers the Fab Four's songs. Naturally, he decides to pass their tunes off as his own, with a few roadblocks, such as his struggles to nail down the lyrical timeline of "Eleanor Rigby."

It's a cute concept that only maximizes about 50 percent of its possibilities. Other than Oasis not existing and, strangely enough, Coca Cola's disappearance, the lack of Beatlemania has seemingly not resulted in a vastly different world in Boyle's film. There are a few references to other cultural touchstones that have also vanished as a result - and a few, honestly, don't make much sense - but otherwise, modern popular culture comes out looking much the same without John, Paul, George or Ringo.

So, when Jack begins passing off The Beatles's music as his own, those around him are shocked to learn that after years of failing to find success as a musician, he could come up with such miraculously brilliant lyrics and music. There's an amusing scene during which a greedy music producer (Kate McKinnon, pretty funny here), is wowed by The Beatles's music that Jack has co-opted as his own, but dislikes one of his actual songs that he attempts to slip in during a recording session.

An early scene in which Jack, who hasn't yet realized that The Beatles no longer exist, sings "Yesterday" to a group of friends after being gifted a guitar upon his release from the hospital after his bicycle crash is emotionally resonant as his pals are deeply moved by that tune's melancholy. There's also clever use of "Back in the USSR" and the lovely "The Long and Winding Road."

The plot thread that could have undermined the entire effort is one in which singer Ed Sheeran pops up as himself, playing a mentor to Jack, although the latter ends up outshining the pop singer in short order. The only reason this thread - which only resurfaces in spurts - works is that Sheeran's role is self-deprecating, although there's a scene in which he's playing to a massive crowd at Wembley Stadium that veers slightly from self-deprecation into self-promotion.

The storyline in the film that gets the most play - and is slightly under-cooked - is the romance between Jack and Ellie (Lily James), a young woman who has been friends with Jack since childhood and harbored a secret crush on him during all the years that she has acted as his manager and booking agent. There are several scenes in which circumstances, for lack of a better word, keep the pair apart, but these are only there to delay the inevitable.

"Yesterday" is boosted by the fact that both leads - Patel and James - give solid performances and are likable leads, and that Patel can actually sing, quite well in fact. There are two scenes in which Jack meets characters not central to the story - one an iconic figure, the other a pair who are in a similar situation to Jack's - that might have derailed the film, but are handled well enough here. There are some critics who'd disagree with me, but the scenes worked for me.

Boyle is a director who can bounce between various genres and different types of subject matter. His best films - "Trainspotting," "28 Days Later" and "Slumdog Millionaire" - typically are darker or grittier fare. His latest is uncharacteristically sunny. It's also not one of his best, but it's often clever and is filled with fantastic music. Like the recent "Rocketman," it's a good movie that utilizes the music of a great musician. It's light and breezy - and, for the most part, an enjoyable watch.