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Yesterday review – Richard Curtis' magical mystery tour of a world without the Beatles

A hopeless songwriter wakes up to find he’s the only person who can remember the Fab Four’s hits in a wacky, winning comedy directed by Danny Boyle

I magine no Beatles , it’s not easy even if you try. No Yesterday, no Blackbird, no Sgt Pepper ... and then … no Imagine, no all-time best Bond theme (Live and Let Die), no all-time best comedy band name (Ringo Deathstarr), no Concert for Bangladesh to inspire Live Aid, no Withnail & I, no Life of Brian – but then again, no Charles Manson . In a Beatle-less universe, Mike McGear could be Bono ’s producer and best mate and Jeff Lynne is president of the world. Screenwriter Richard Curtis ’s goofy, wacky, exasperatingly enjoyable fantasy-comedy riffs on ideas like these with a story co-written with Jack Barth – although it turns out TV’s Goodnight Sweetheart got to the idea first . It is directed with dash and gusto by Danny Boyle .

Maybe it shouldn’t be any sort of evaluative factor, but the simple fact of hearing Beatles songs, the simple thought experiment of pretending to hear them for the first time, does carry a charge. And, although this film can be a bit hokey and uncertain on narrative development, the puppyish zest and fun summoned up by Curtis and Boyle carry it along. It’s ridiculous and indulgent at all times, like Russell Crowe shouting his “Are you not entertained” line from Gladiator wearing a Beatles wig. Yet there is a weird and heavy backwash of sadness at the end, a kind of melancholy comedown, and I can’t quite decide if that was intentional or not.

Himesh Patel (from EastEnders and Channel 4’s Damned) steps up amiably and confidently to his starring role as the classic Richard Curtis lovably-hopeless-and-rubbish character with a supportive gallery of friends; he gets a wild stroke of fortune that could never ever happen in real life. But that’s enough about the fact that his best mate is Lily James who is probably in love with him.

Patel plays Jack, a useless bloke from Lowestoft who works in a retail warehouse and has big dreams of making it as a singer-songwriter. On evenings and weekends, he and his guitar show up at awful pubs, gigs secured by his superfan, de facto manager and miraculous quasi-Platonic-but-not-really friend Ellie (James) who has believed in him ever since school when she saw him playing Wonderwall, of all the hilariously quasi-Beatle standards.

But then one night, at the exact moment that Jack loses consciousness due to a non-serious road accident, a gigantic electrical storm lashes across our solar system, frying planet Earth’s space-time-reality-consciousness continuum, and, after a brief power-out, existence has been changed: the Beatles never existed. (This is incidentally every bit as scientifically accurate as anything in Christopher Nolan’s Interstellar .) Jack realises that he is the only person unaffected. He is the only human being who remembers the Beatles songs and can pass them off as his. And so his climb to super-mega-greatness begins.

There are lots of laughs and goosebump moments, especially when Jack plays his new song Yesterday to his saucer-eyed mates, and later realises he has to frantically piece together the lyrics for Eleanor Rigby from memory because Google can’t help. Ed Sheeran has a nice good-sport cameo as himself, as the big star who discovers Jack and then has to come to terms with the fact that he is Salieri to Jack’s Mozart; and, in all his mediocrity, he winds up attempting to sabotage Hey Jude.

Arguably, the story as it pans out is a bit straightforward: there is no question of, say, some Beatles songs going down better than others in the present day. Moreover, Curtis scholars will see how Yesterday is a gender-switch version of Notting Hill , featuring an ordinary guy getting a brush with uber-glamour, with Joel Fry in the Rhys Ifans role of stupid best mate. There wasn’t much for Kate McKinnon to get hold of in the role of the nasty LA manager, but the onward rush of silliness compensates.

Of course, we’re heading for a colossal final cameo(s), and I was reasonably sure I knew what form this was going to take – but I was wrong. This big walk-on moment is every bit as sentimental and extravagantly sugary as everything else. For the first millisecond, though, it really will take you aback. As fab as it could reasonably be expected to be.

• Peter Bradshaw's film of the week
• Comedy films
• Richard Curtis
• Danny Boyle
• The Beatles
• Science fiction and fantasy films

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Yesterday may fall short of fab, but the end result is still a sweetly charming fantasy with an intriguing -- albeit somewhat under-explored -- premise.

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‘Yesterday’ Review: I Saw a Film Today, Oh Boy

Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis invite you to imagine there’s no Beatles.

‘Yesterday’ | Anatomy of a Scene

Danny boyle narrates a sequence from his film..

Hi. this is Danny Boyle, the director of “Yesterday.” “I’ve got a bunch of new songs. And I thought people might like to hear them.” “Oh.” So where we are in this scene is that Jack has recovered from the accident, which happened during the blackout, where the Beatles were erased from the world’s consciousness. And he’s discovered the opportunity, which is to revitalize his own fairly unsuccessful singer-songwriting career by actually playing the Beatles songs that he can remember. “Right. This is called “Let It Be.’” So Himesh Patel plays Jack Malik. That’s his mom, Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar, who are, in fact, a real life couple. But actually, they are also two of the finest comic actors in Britain, as well, independently of each other. And he starts to sing by saying to his parents that he’s got a couple of new songs he wants to try out, and he’s going to go back to performing, even though they thought he was giving up. They wanted him to give up, because they think it’s a bit of a dead end. [music - “let it be’] “(SINGING) comes to me — “ [doorbell ringing] “ — speaking — “ “Oh, oh. Sorry, love.” They’re inclined to think this is Jack just indulging the dead end of his career. So they don’t sense that they are actually the first people on Earth to apparently hear one of the greatest masterpieces of pop music ever written. “Really? I thought — I thought he’d given up?” “Yeah. No. Well, he’s got some new songs. And what’s this one called?” “’Leave It Be.’” “’Let It Be.’” “Oh, excellent, well — “ The misnaming of the song was something that Meera Syal came up with on the day. [music - “let it be’] “(SINGING) When I find myself in times of trouble — “ “Would you like a drink, Terry?” “(SPEAKING) Dad!” “Well, I’d already heard that bit.” “Sorry, Jack.” Everything that can interrupt the song is essential to the comedy of the scene, really. Because as Jack fights for the great masterpiece of cultural achievement to be heard, it’s not even allowed any room. Because everybody’s too busy with their phones, with their beer. And Karl Theobald, who plays Terry, does a wonderful tapping of the sofa arm, out of time to the song, which is the ultimate insult. [cellphone ringing] “Sorry, my fault. Oh.” So the key thing was to try and find the living room that looked incredibly ordinary. We wanted it to feel very, very ordinary. And I remember on the day turning up that we kept the property looking almost the same as it was when we found it. Because it looked perfect. But they didn’t have a piano. So then they brought along on the day, a choice of pianos. And we — this piano that he plays on is not the best tuned piano. But I wanted it to look like it was the piano that he grew up learning on. The ordinary is very important in the film. Because where the guys came from, the Fab Four, the original Beatles, was from a very ordinary town, in a way. [music - “let it be’] “Then maybe we can have summer songs!” [dissonant banging on piano] “Christ! This is “Let It Be!” You’re the first people on Earth to hear this song!” So many of us have tried to persuade our parents to listen to a song, you know, because we love it. And they can’t hear it. We all know that scenario, don’t we? One of the reasons we picked the location is that it’s got this round glass, which gives a distorted view of people arriving. They’re kind of, like, out of focus. They’re grotesque, really. Which is what they feel like to him. “How are you?” “Fine.” “Well, that went well.”

By A.O. Scott

While it would be too harsh to call Jack Malik a real nowhere man, that’s where his musical career seems to be going. A modestly talented songwriter with a decent voice and busker-grade guitar skills, Jack — played with a winning mixture of moodiness and wit by Himesh Patel — decides to give up on his rock ’n’ roll dreams and go back to teaching school.

This is devastating news to his biggest and quite possibly only fan, Ellie (Lily James), who is also his road manager, chauffeur and best friend. She’s carrying a torch for him visible from across the universe , which Jack is too confused or self-absorbed to notice. With a love like that, you’d think he would be glad.

Of course, since “Yesterday” is a romantic comedy of sorts with a script by Richard Curtis ( “Notting Hill,” “Love Actually,” etc.), it seems likely that Jack will find his way to Ellie sooner or later. We’ve seen that road before. This time, his awakening will require a bump on the head and a small but significant tear in the fabric of reality as Jack and the rest of us know it.

“I don’t believe in Beatles,” John Lennon once sang. This silly and sincere pop confection, energetically directed by Danny Boyle ( “28 Days Later,” “ Slumdog Millionaire,” etc.), wonders what might happen if nobody else did, either. After a traffic accident mysteriously connected to a global power outage, Jack wakes up to discover that the Fab Four have been erased from the collective cultural memory. A Google search turns up pictures of insects. There’s a gap in the B section of Jack’s record collection. When he sings “Yesterday” for Ellie and some other friends, they’re blown away. They want to know when — how, for whom — he came to write such an amazing song.

Suddenly, Jack is 10 times the man he used to be. “Yesterday,” meanwhile, scrambles to figure out what to do with its daft, ingenious premise.

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Yesterday Review

If director Danny Boyle is to be trusted to do anything, it’s taking the everyday world we see in front of us and twisting it ever so slightly into a fantastical version of itself. His latest film, Yesterday , falls into that similar mold, with the big difference being that this time out Boyle is paired with legendary comedy writer Richard Curtis. Putting the director of A Life Less Ordinary and the writer of About Time together is about as perfect on paper as it is in execution, as Yesterday takes an old song and makes it better.

Aspiring singer Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) writes his own songs, plays tons of pub gigs outside of his retail job, and has hit a wall in his creative process. Ready to quit and leave the dream that he and friend/manager Ellie ( Lily James ) have been pursuing for some time, Jack’s fortunes change after a freak accident that Yesterday’s story hinges upon. All it takes is a 12-second worldwide blackout to wipe The Beatles from the world’s collective minds, setting Jack up for the ultimate career boost.

The premise of Yesterday is so simple and so outlandish that it helps drive the film without overtaking its characters. Using the hook of The Beatles never existing, Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis tell a story about how their music affects the world on a macrocosmic level. Rather than imagining a world where huge chunks of history haven’t occurred because of their absence, Yesterday is the story of a young man who digs deep inside himself, learning while recreating the music that only he can remember.

Another fantastic part about Yesterday’s storyline is the fact it doesn’t delve too deeply into the well-worn tropes that you’d expect out of this sort of story. Indeed, there are twists that drop into play throughout the film, but much like the current of humor that Yesterday engages in, those moments don’t follow the usual beats that you'd normally be able to call from a mile away.

Playing the role of the pivotal Jack is newcomer Himesh Patel, who not only has to play guitar and sing through recreations of a slew of Beatles hits, but also has to focus on bringing to life this singular blend of Danny Boyle’s directing and Richard Curtis’ writing. All of this falls on his shoulders this first time at bat, and Patel delivers as easily and gracefully as the musical catalog he helps pay tribute to.

Himesh Patel is a fresh young face who seems ready for the big time from frame one, and it shows every time he puts his talents to the test against a cast that includes the charming Lily James, among others. It’s no secret that Patel and James get to play a couple of friends who should have seen something between them a long time ago, but the way that Richard Curtis’s writing has them play that story out is atypical, with moments that start out on an emotional front, only to give way to comedy.

The way the material of Yesterday shifts between emotions and gags feels very natural, both because of the writing and the performances driving said writing, that you can still laugh at a joke and find yourself upset over the more emotional parts. I definitely found myself laughing with tears in my eyes, and it’s that drive that helps sell the overall story of the film to an ability that makes it a crowd-pleasing, warm blanket of a film.

Of course, the legendary Beatles song catalog shines brightly in Yesterday , as Himesh Patel stumbles through remembering lyrics the world has oft-quoted, sung, and memorized over decades of existence. Seeing these songs being written and recorded for the first time in Jack’s world gives new life to tracks like “I Saw Her Standing There,” “I Want To Hold Your Hand,” and in particularly memorable fashion, “Eleanor Rigby.”

That last song pretty much ties together everything wonderful about Yesterday , as watching Jack fumble for the lyrics and emotional meaning behind one of Paul McCartney and John Lennon’s hits shows everything that Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis do well in their execution of this film. The creative, the emotional, and even the comedic processes of Yesterday all come through in the visual and linguistic language of the moment. You’re not just hearing Jack work his way through the lyrics, you’re seeing them come to life as they’re altered and cemented. You feel the song growing, and in turn, Jack growing as well, through his efforts of trying to remember what exactly Father McKenzie was doing in that song's story.

Yesterday is an uplifting triumph of heartfelt comedy, believable drama, and just the right amount of quirk to remove this film from any sort of mundane reality. In its own way, it even ponders how successful The Beatles's material would be, and the challenges it would face, if it were coming up in the modern music industry; which only adds to the film's sly thoughtfulness.

Add in some perfect comedic seasoning from the likes of Ed Sheeran and Kate McKinnon , and you’ve got a film that sparkles through its entire length. Though there is only one minor problem with Yesterday's story, as a couple logical gaps aren’t quite sewn up by the end. Considering one of the film’s running gags depends on that sort of logical clarity, it’s something that glares a little more than somewhat in the film’s story, and still stuck in my mind as I walked out of Yesterday . Thankfully, it doesn't kill the joy that the film espoused in me, but it will lead to some intense discussion.

With that caveat in mind, Yesterday is a a total joy of a film that cements Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis as master storytellers of our time, as well as Himesh Patel as a rising talent who has limitless potential on display. I believe in Yesterday , and you will too.

Mike Reyes is the Senior Movie Contributor at CinemaBlend, though that title’s more of a guideline really. Passionate about entertainment since grade school, the movies have always held a special place in his life, which explains his current occupation. Mike graduated from Drew University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science, but swore off of running for public office a long time ago. Mike's expertise ranges from James Bond to everything Alita, making for a brilliantly eclectic resume. He fights for the user.

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Culture | Film

Yesterday review: Here comes the fun? Not on this unmagical, unmysterious tour

Imagine a Britain of 2019 in which a guy pushing 30 can sing “She was just 17, yeah you know what I mean” from a stage and no one in the crowd finds it icky. It isn’t hard to do, with this one tiny proviso: you’ll need to be Richard Curtis to do it.

In Yesterday, Curtis imagines something even more extraordinary than an audience of the woke ignoring the creepy overtones of that line. He conceives a world bereft of the band who wrote it. The problem is that he cannot deliver on the premise.

In Suffolk, singer-songwriter Jack Malik ( Himesh Patel ) gets by with a little help from his friends (the usual Curtisian cabal of the winsomely zany, the bone-headed comic relief and the improbably good-natured). But his career is restricted to playing his own compositions to indifferent pubgoers and empty festival tents. Barring a miracle, he tells his manager/ roadie/ BFF Ellie (Lily James), “this is the end of our long and winding road”.

On a short, straight stretch of East Anglian road, the miracle arrives. During a power outage that turns the lights out across the globe, if not the universe, Jack comes off his bike and bangs his head.

When he comes around, he has lost two front teeth but gained something more valuable for a musical superstar wannabe. He is the only person on the planet who is aware of The Beatles — and he knows their songs.

Ellie doesn’t get the reference when he asks if she’ll still need him and feed him when he’s 64. When he Googles “The Beatles”, the results show only photos of hard-shelled insects.

When Phil Connors woke in the inexplicable parallel universe of Groundhog Day, he did what any recognisably human life form would do. He had his brain scanned and consulted a shrink.

But internal logic has no place in Curtis’s script, so Jack accepts the fact as casually as Domhnall Gleeson adjusts to the power to travel between the past and present in About Time, Curtis’s previous and far superior foray into alternate timeline fantasy.

Jack’s lack of curiosity mirrors the writer’s. Having posed the fascinating question “How would life be different without The Beatles?”, Curtis’s answer is, “Erm, well, beyond the non-existence of Oasis and other tribute acts who stood on the shoulders of these giants — not at all really.”

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Rather than explore the intriguing premise of a modern world denied one of its most formative cultural influences, he shrinks it into an enabling plot device for another sweetly watchable romcom. Nothing can pierce the force field shielding Curtisworld from reality, including Danny Boyle’s direction. Whatever the story, wherever it is set, whoever it features, it is the same tweely comforting utopia in which all anyone needs is love.

This story is set in coastal Suffolk, with trips to Wembley and Los Angeles once Jack’s monopoly of the discography launches his career into the stratosphere.

Patel’s career may follow the same trajectory after his wonderful performance. He sings Yesterday, In My Life and others of the usual suspects (no diversions from the Greatest Hits here) with the pitch-perfect mellowness of the young Paul Mc-Cartney. He gives the adorably bashful little boy lost, that overfamiliar Curtis archetype, a freshness it doesn’t deserve.

James is equally strong as Ellie, a teacher whose love may not go unrequited for ever. There are other com-pensations. Kate McKinnon, a comic actor of sheerest genius, chips in drolly as the brutally frank LA pop manager whose pantomime cynicism reminds Jack that wealth and fame are scant rewards for the loss of a soul. Ed Sheeran is very nearly credible as Ed Sheeran, a wildly popular modern balladeer who hires Jack as his support but finds himself overshadowed by his protégé’s knack for composing timelessly sublime tracks in 10 minutes.

Like most Curtis films (the sensibilities here are entirely his, not Boyle’s), this one never bores. Fuelled by the engaging chemistry of its leads and the unflagging wonderment of the music, it zips along. But it can never quite reach escape velocity from the weight of its silliness. When Jack belts out Back in the U.S.S.R., Curtis fleetingly acknowledges the contradiction by having Sheeran wonder why someone born after the fall of the Soviet Union would have written it.

Yet no one is vaguely suspicious to hear a man called Malik singing, “When I find myself in times of trouble, mother Mary comes to me”. There isn’t the faintest nod to Jack (or his parents, played by Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar) having a Muslim heritage. This unmagical, unmysterious tour through the well-mapped sunny uplands of Curtis’s mind derails itself, briefly but spectacularly, in the third act. Critics are instructed not to divulge the identity of the special guest star. All I will say is that it induced a yelp of shock and horror.

En route to a destination flagged in flashing neon from the start, Sarah Lancashire pops up at Eleanor Rigby’s grave to hint that Jack may not be alone after all. “A world without The Beatles is a world that’s infinitely worse,” she thanks him. It’s an observation that no one on speaking terms with their senses would dispute, and imagining such a world isn’t easy. But Curtis is too cosily ensconced in his comfort zone even to try.

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Movie Reviews

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When I was a kid, the guy who taught music classes in my school was an aging hippie with a long beard. He'd hand out tambourines and triangles and teach us simple songs. At the end of each class, he would regale us, unprompted, with first-hand stories of Beatlemania. He basically lived out the real-life version of Robert Zemeckis' "I Wanna Hold Your Hand," traveling to New York City with his friends to try to score tickets to "The Ed Sullivan Show" for the Beatles' historic first appearance. (He failed, but he did stand in the mob outside the hotel where the Beatles were staying.) We were 8 years old and had no idea what he was talking about. His enthusiasm was catching, though. I learned how to harmonize by singing along to my parents' Beatles albums. (I recommend this approach.) The Beatles were just  there , absorbed by osmosis. If nothing else, Danny Boyle's "Yesterday," which imagines a world where the Beatles never happened, made me think about what would it be like to hear "Yesterday" for the first time, what life would be like if the Beatles didn't exist. The film, scripted by Richard Curtis , explores some of the implications of its premise, but, frustratingly, skips over others. 

To call Jack ( Himesh Patel ) a "struggling musician" is an understatement. He plays in coffee shops, populated only by his friends. He sings on an empty boardwalk. His childhood friend Ellie ( Lily James ), who fell in love with him—and his music—when he played Oasis' "Wonderwall" at a talent show in grade school, acts as his manager, giving him pep talks, fired up by her belief in him. He lives with his parents in Suffolk, and is ready to throw in the towel when, one night, the earth experiences a 12-second blackout. During those 12 seconds, Jack is hit by a bus, and when he wakes up in the hospital realizes something weird has happened when he says to Ellie "Will you still feed me when I'm 64?" and she doesn't recognize the lyrics. “Why 64?” she asks with curiosity. Jack races to Google, and no matter what the combination of search terms, no trace of the Beatles is to be found. Curtis has a lot of fun with how absurd it would be if you mentioned "The Beatles” to people and they asked "What's that?" Jack makes the choice to start playing these "lost" songs, passing them off as his own. 

He plays "Yesterday" for his friends, and the looks on their listening faces is a potent—and welcome—reminder of the song's melancholy beauty. The entire film stops, allowing us the space to really listen. But when Jack plays the songs at gigs, he's just background noise. So this makes him wonder: maybe it's me who is the problem? The songs are great, but I am not. There was an alchemical thing that happened with the Fab Four, and without that, maybe the rest wouldn’t have followed. This is an interesting possibility, which the film for the most part does not explore. Eventually, Jack records a few of the songs, appearing on local television shows to promote “his" music. Ed Sheeran (playing himself in a very self-deprecating cameo) catches one of these television spots, and swoops in to take Jack on tour with him. When Jack decides to play "Back in the U.S.S.R." to an all-Russian crowd in Moscow, mayhem erupts (it's a great scene), and the video of the performance goes viral. Sheeran murmurs, "I was always told someone would come along and be better than me. You're Mozart and I'm Salieri." 

Debra Hammer ( Kate McKinnon ), a shark-like record label exec sidles up to Jack after a show, talons out, and before he knows it, he's in Los Angeles being offered "the poisoned chalice" of fame (as Debra calls it). McKinnon puts such a deadpan spin on lines like: "I have a question, Jack. Is this as good as you can look?" that she almost single-handedly indicts the entire PR machinery of show business. The music industry is lightly lampooned, when some ad exec. nixes the album title  Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band  as having "too many words" and points out that calling an album  The White Album  has "serious diversity issues." There are some fun sequences, like Jack trying, with a sense of increasing urgency, to remember the lyrics to "Eleanor Rigby," fearing if he doesn't the song will be lost forever. 

"Yesterday” dodges many of its most interesting ideas. Jack is a worldwide phenomenon almost instantly. But if the Beatles hadn't happened, there would have been a ripple effect. It's incorrect to say "Well, if it hadn't been the Beatles, it would have been someone else." That's not how culture works. So much of it is lightning  not  striking twice, of right-place-right-time mixed with the right combination of people at the right moment. It had to be John, Paul, George and Ringo. In "Yesterday," the music business is more or less the same as it is now. But how many artists have been inspired by the Beatles, and then that inspiration flowed into the next generation and the next? How many contemporary songwriters still show the Beatles' influence? It's very intriguing early on when Jack plays Beatles songs at coffee-shop gigs, and nobody even looks over. The music has zero impact on these people. What if things had developed so differently in the Beatles' absence that people would have no idea what they were missing, and, frankly, wouldn't care, because how can you miss what you've never had? These ideas are present, but "Yesterday" doesn't dig into them.

The film gets caught up in the relationship between Jack and Ellie, which is not all that interesting, pieced together with cliches from other films. "Yesterday" wants to be a feel-good movie, and much of it did make me feel good. The looks on his friends' faces when they hear "Yesterday" for the first time was very moving. I am conflicted about a choice made late in the film. You'll know it when you see it. It felt cheap to me, and also strangely underdeveloped, although the line "It is so good to see you" got to me. Like I said: conflicted. 

Sheila O'Malley

Sheila O'Malley received a BFA in Theatre from the University of Rhode Island and a Master's in Acting from the Actors Studio MFA Program. Read her answers to our Movie Love Questionnaire here .

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Yesterday (2019)

Rated PG-13 for suggestive content and language.

112 minutes

Himesh Patel as Jack Malik

Lily James as Ellie Appleton

Ed Sheeran as Ed Sheeran

Kate McKinnon as Debra Hammer

Camille Chen as Wendy

Maryana Spivak as Alexa

Lamorne Morris as Head of Marketing

James Corden as James Corden

• Danny Boyle

Writer (story by)

• Richard Curtis

Cinematographer

• Christopher Ross
• Daniel Pemberton

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'Yesterday' is a low-key bonkers joy ride

I was a couple of hours out from my screening of Danny Boyle's Yesterday when I realized it would probably make me cry.

My dad grew up in England during the '70s, so while I wasn't raised on most classic American music, I've been on a steady Beatles diet since preschool. I find comfort in the warm embrace of a Scouse accent, the signature sound of Liverpool aka home of my cousins and the Beatles. And to top it all off, Yesterday boasts a South Asian leading man singing Beatles songs! I would be lucky to survive this movie.

Yesterday is the story of Jack Malik (Himesh Patel), a struggling musician who's decided to call it quits. He's biking home one night when there's a worldwide blackout . During the 12 seconds of total darkness, Jack gets hit by a bus, and when he wakes up in the hospital he's the only person on earth who remembers the Beatles.

Let's pause for a moment here to appreciate the truly crazy premise by screenwriters Richard Curtis (who also directed) and Jack Barth, which Yesterday sometimes teases but truly has no intention of exploring. Whole television shows have been dedicated to solving mysterious blackouts, and I'm not saying Yesterday merits a sci-fi sequel to solve the mystery but also yes that is exactly what I'm saying! The Beatles aren't the only thing erased from history during the blackout, and little anomalies pop up throughout the film: Oasis doesn't exist either, but a flashback shows Jack performing it in school as a boy. What the hell do the other students remember this as?

When he realizes his unique position, Jack does the only thing he can and starts to play and record Beatles songs with the support of best friend/manager Ellie (Lily James). He's never clamoring to claim credit, but of course implies and plays along because the truth is so utterly outlandish. It's a slow road to success, even with some of the most essential music of human culture in his pocket. Jack plays parties and restaurants, records a demo in a warehouse, and it's only through the blessing of his number one fan-slash-guardian angel Ed Sheeran that he breaks into the mainstream as a viral sensation.

Read that last sentence again. This movie!

It's hard to suss out Sheeran's reality vs. his character in this performance since we've seen so little of his acting before, but his demeanor vacillates between mellow celeb-just-like-you and the possibility of a jealous rage monster shaped like ring-hungry Bilbo Baggins lurking underneath. It's sweet that "Ed Sheeran" would befriend and help Jack, but also kind of thrilling to consider that he might regularly contemplate murdering said friend in his sleep.

Like the Beatles and their music, Yesterday is quietly ridiculous, but boasts a wholesome mass appeal. (Though unlike the Beatles, Yesterday does not reveal hitherto unforeseen genius.) The script screams of Curtis's decidedly British humor, the kind of dry charisma that endeared to us characters like Hugh Grant in Love Actually and Bill Nighy in About Time . James and Patel are a charming pair, with the latter never letting his character slip into glory-hound douchebag territory. Even as he ostensibly chases fame and success, he's always the toothless dork we met in the first few scenes, chuffed to be at the party and play a few songs while he's there.

And with Jack Malik, the Yesterday team has done what seemed impossible and given us a South Asian everyman. Plenty of writers and actors have strived for this, but too often the result is a whitewashed, sanded-down character whose lack of engagement with his identity arguably dilutes the story's authenticity. In Jack's case, ethnicity doesn't come up because it genuinely doesn't have to. His parents (the fabulous Meera Syal and Sanjeev Bhaskar) sport the same English accent he does, which means their family has been in the U.K. for generations -- and I'd argue that Mr. Malik taking an entire plate of tuna sandwiches at a gig is the most Indian dad thing of all.

That's a bit of a stretch when it comes to plot points about the difficulty of selling Jack's image (via constant negging delivered superbly by Kate McKinnon, who is having more fun than anyone in a movie with no discernible purpose besides fun). That the film suggests Jack's name and skin tone would be non-issues in his career trajectory is... almost cute? Patel has the most riding on this movie that's mostly a time-pass for its otherwise established cast, and the best thing Yesterday can yield is more roles for someone with his innate ability to sell something so bizarre.

Ultimately, Yesterday boils down to a classic love story, and not one with any real stakes (apart from a man named Gavin, who seems nice). Ellie loves Jack, Jack loves Ellie, they tell each other and then do nothing and then do something. It's saccharine but not nearly as entertaining as constant ironic humor for an audience who knows the Beatles and will delight at every heavy-handed wink. That's right -- Yesterday literally turns the most popular band of all time into a massive inside joke , and it's hilarious!

I did cry during Yesterday , due to some cocktail of the aforementioned reasons and at least one wild card that would probably be considered a spoiler. I also laughed – cackled, even – and had a lovely time at the movies. Yesterday is not trying to be anything other than what it promises: a gleeful ride through a wild premise with some feel-good music to keep you going along the way.

Topics Music

Proma Khosla is a Senior Entertainment Reporter writing about all things TV, from ranking Bridgerton crushes to composer interviews and leading Mashable's stateside coverage of Bollywood and South Asian representation. You might also catch her hosting video explainers or on Mashable's TikTok and Reels, or tweeting silly thoughts from @promawhatup .

‘Yesterday’ Review: In a Beatles-Less World, Love Really Is All You Need

By Peter Travers

Peter Travers

Imagine that the world has blacked out for a snap. When everything comes back, you find yourself in a timeline where John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr hadn’t come together to form the Beatles ? You could try to find this quartet of Liverpudlians and hope that lightning strikes again. Or: You could use this alt-history reboot to write the complete catalog of the Fab Four and claim it as your own, earning fame, fortune and the chance to be named the greatest songwriter of all time.

50 Greatest Romantic Comedies of All Time

That’s the premise of Yesterday, a light summer breeze of escapist fun courtesy of high-powered director Danny Boyle and screenwriter Richard Curtis. In this setup, struggling musician Jack Malik — played by British actor Himesh Patel in a scrappy feature debut — suffers a freak accident while biking home from another failed local gig in Sussex. When the lights go out for 12 seconds, a bus hits Jack, sending him to a hospital with two teeth missing. Also missing: the existence of the Beatles. When Jack asks his loyal, improbably gorgeous manager, Ellie (Lily James), “Will you still need me, will you still feed me, when I’m 64?” she replies, baffled, “Why 64?”

And we’re off, with Curtis ( Love Actually, Notting Hill ) laying on his trademarked blend of snarky and sentimental. Jack litters his bedroom wall with Post-its of every Beatles song he can remember. Soon, he starts passing off the greatest songbook in pop-music history as his own. Superstardom follows. So does guilt.

It’s cute when Jack can’t remember the tricky lyrics to “Eleanor Rigby,” and his parents get bored when he plays them “Let It Be.” And it stings when Jack sings “Yesterday” and a friend objects to him describing McCartney’s ballad as the most beautiful love song ever written. (“It’s not Coldplay,” she says, unimpressed. “It’s not ‘Fix You.'”) Scenes like that make you wish the Curtis script had cut deeper into what kind of reaction the Beatles’ music would have on millennials hearing it for the first time. yet it’s a treat when Ed Sheeran shows up as himself, marveling at Jack’s songwriting chops. He challenges the new kid in town to a competition over who can write a catchier tune in 10 minutes. Then Jack comes up with “The Long and Winding Road,” and the self-proclaimed “ginger geezer” hilariously throws in the towel.

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All this puts a lot of pressure on Patel to deliver, which he does with becoming modesty and undeniable talent. The actor has a sweet voice, more McCartney than Lennon, and he evokes the Beatles without slavishly imitating them. For instance, his driving take on “Help!” carries a desperation that speaks to Jack’s own situation as a man out of his depth. It’s telling that both he and Ellie are gifted teachers sidetracked into music careers to which neither is ideally suited.

Patel and James play the standard-issue love story with touching conviction. Still, maintaining a rooting interest is a tall order. That’s where Boyle comes in. The Oscar-winning director, who made his bones with edgy films like Trainspotting, gives the film a muscular energy when things threaten to get too sappy and syrupy. With the help of cinematographer Christopher Ross ( Black Sea ) and editor Jon Harris ( 127 Hours ), Boyle brings propulsive life to what could have been a static canvas. The film takes some seriously wrong turns, such as an awful surprise cameo near the end and an unexplored argument about whether imitation Beatles is better than no Beatles at all. Yesterday has its heart firmly in the right place. It’s the challenge to take it to the next level that’s missing.

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When the Beatles are mysteriously erased from global cultural memory, one young guitarist's stardom is made, in Danny Boyle's euphoric, guilt-free fantasia.

Time Out says

There’s a lot that’s mind-bendingly corny about director Danny Boyle and writer Richard Curtis’s ‘Yesterday’, a peppy ‘what-if?’ musical comedy that imagines a world in which the Beatles never existed. Your ability to spend time in its big-hearted, dad-joke world might lie with your tolerance for Ed Sheeran making fun of himself: If you can cope with those sort of inventions along with the film’s hit-and-miss gag rate and its happy-clappy view of modern Britain, then its endless sugar rush of Beatles covers and endearing performances from the likes of Lily James and newcomer Himesh Patel make it hard not to like. It also has a strange cameo, bold and not what you expect, and maybe the best screen jokes so far about Google searches. (Type ‘John Paul George Ringo’ in a Beatles-less universe and what do you get? ‘Pope John Paul II’ of course.)

It all spins on a goofy high concept that blossoms in an average corner of coastal Suffolk. Jack (Himesh Patel, a real discovery) is a struggling 27-year-old singer-songwriter sick of playing to thin crowds. But his bright-eyed old friend and manager Ellie (James) is supportive – and clearly in love with him. The years of musical irrelevance end when there’s an electricity blackout across the globe, a jolt from the storytelling gods so absurd that you go with it. Jack is knocked off his bicycle and wakes in hospital to the gradual realisation that not a single other soul in the world knows who the Beatles are.

The most powerful moment in this energetic, fun film (although one more compelling in the set-up than the unfolding) comes when Jack leaves hospital and strums ‘Yesterday’ to his friends. Boyle gives us shots of strangers going about their business and we feel the universal power of a brilliant song. Not every Beatles tune we hear lands with such power. It’s impossible; there are so many. Jack becomes a global star: The trick of ‘The Truman Show’ is inverted, and Jack is the only person in on the joke. But it’s not so funny when the record industry, personified by Jack’s careerist new manager (Kate McKinnon, very broad), prepares to suck him up and spit him out.

A more satirical, challenging film would spin this whole premise in loopier, more testing directions. Would Ed Sheeran even exist if there were no Beatles? Would the UK look and feel exactly as it does now (or at least as it does in every Richard Curtis film)? Does this movie not oddly suggest that the Beatles were irrelevant: not so influential after all, considering all we lack is their songs and nothing of the culture they inspired?

Yesterday doesn’t dig this deep; it’s a fun game, a romantic conundrum and a loopy jukebox movie, with only brief hints of something darker when Jack begins to regret allowing his lie to run away with him and ends up further than ever from his old friend Ellie, representative of everything good, pure and constant in his life. Yes, there’s a classic Richard Curtis romance running alongside the theatrics – but like the best Beatles songs, ‘Yesterday’ also leaves us with a lingering sense of melancholy after the melody fades. In the end, though, it’s the music that carries it: How can you resist such a full-throated, playful celebration of some of the best songs ever recorded? You don't.

Cast and crew

• Director: Danny Boyle
• Screenwriter: Richard Curtis
• Himesh Patel

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Yesterday review: Are Richard Curtis and Danny Boyle the dream team?

Not to mention Lennon and McCartney.

Singer-songwriter Jack Malik (former EastEnders star Himesh Patel) might be playing Latitude, but it's only to a handful of people – and most of them are his friends and dedicated manager Ellie (Lily James).

After a bus accident during a freak worldwide blackout, Jack wakes up in a world where The Beatles never existed, leaving him with a moral dilemma. Does he rip off their songs to achieve the stardom he's tried to get his entire life? Of course he does.

But as his star rises and he becomes an worldwide sensation, Jack risks losing everything from his old life, including Ellie. Were The Beatles right? Is love all you need?

There will be some of you reading this who visibly recoil from that plot, especially when we mention the presence of Ed Sheeran. Yesterday probably won't prove to everyone's tastes, but those who dismiss it out of hand would be missing out on what is likely to be the crowdpleasing hit of the summer.

A large part of this is down to the engaging performances of Himesh Patel (in his first big-screen role) and Lily James, who share great chemistry. You're fully behind their friendship and feel all the heartbreak. Neither of them are the cool kids, and their endearing characters help sell the outrageous concept.

They're backed up by some wonderful supporting work from Sanjeev Bhaskar and Meera Syal as Jack's adorably oblivious parents and Kate McKinnon as Jack's new cold-hearted agent. The only duff note is a wooden performance from Ed Sheeran (as himself), but fortunately he isn't in it much and the movie pokes a lot of fun at him.

And while Jack's music career plays out more like a subplot to his relationship with Ellie, Curtis and Boyle mine the movie's set-up for sharp gags at the expense of the music industry, Oasis, Coldplay and The Beatles' album titles. It's consistently funny throughout – but don't expect too many jokes about The Beatles themselves.

Yesterday doesn't exactly rip up the rulebook, but subtly tweaks the expected romcom formula throughout.

As expected from a Richard Curtis movie, there are plenty of heart-to-heart conversations and the prerequisite dash to the airport (well, this time, Liverpool Lime Street station). The destination might always be set in stone, yet there's a long and winding (and surprising) road to get there.

That being said, there is one plot development in the final third that will cause plenty of debate. Some might even find it a bit distasteful, while for others, it'll be a seriously emotional moment. It's not enough to derail the movie if you don't approve of it though.

By the time its heartwarming climax comes around (with a big public declaration, naturally), Yesterday will have won you over again. You'll leave the cinema with a full heart, tears in your eyes and singing Beatles songs all the way home.

All together now. Nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah, nah nah nah nah...

Yesterday is in cinemas now.

Director: Danny Boyle; Starring: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Kate McKinnon, Ed Sheeran; Running time: 116 minutes; Certificate: TBC

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Movies Editor, Digital Spy  Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor.  Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies , attending genre festivals around the world.   After moving to Digital Spy , initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.  

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• DVD & Streaming

Content Caution

In Theaters

• June 28, 2019
• Himesh Patel as Jack Malik; Lily James as Ellie Appleton; Joel Fry as Rocky; Kate McKinnon as Debra Hammer; Ed Sheeran as himself

Home Release Date

• September 24, 2019
• Danny Boyle

Distributor

• Universal Pictures

Movie Review

A blackout swept around the entire globe. Things went missing.

But Jack remembered.

Just the night before, Jack had decided to bail on his dream of being a performer. And the truth is, it wasn’t even a hard decision. His songs are insipidly bland. He’s not all that personable or attractive. His singer-songwriter shtick barely draws flies. So, what’s the point? Time to go back to a “real” job, he figures.

To be frank, pretty much all Jack has going for him is his best friend and manager, Ellie. She’s his polar opposite. Where he’s dark and gloomy, she’s sunny. Where he sees the worst, she spots the silver lining. He’s a rumpled schlub, she’s girl-next-door beautiful.

On top of all that, Ellie is dedicated and encouraging, and she regularly picks him up after every miserable performance stumble. It’s been that way ever since elementary school, where the two of them met after Jack performed an Oasis song at a school talent show.

Ellie is like Jack’s best friend, sister, guardian angel and primary cheerleader all wrapped up in one adorable package. And it’s not that Jack can’t see all that wonderfulness; he just has a hard time seeing … past his own flaws.

But then the blackout happens.

Par for the course, the lights blink out and Jack is promptly hit by a bus, knocked off his bike and sent face-first into the asphalt in the pitch black. When he wakes up, he missing two front teeth and has a face full of bruises and cuts.

After being released from the hospital, Jack gets together with some friends. Of course, they’re all focused on how many jokes they can come up with about his vibrant road-rash makeover. Everyone except loyal Ellie, that is. While the others tease, she just smiles winsomely and presents him with a new guitar she’d purchased to replace the one broken during in the accident.

“The accident was a message from God,” Ellie declares brightly. “God doesn’t want you to give up your music.” She earnestly means every word.

Jack takes the guitar gratefully and sits to play a song. (Not one of his own, mind you. Why make anyone suffer through that?) Instead, he plays The Beatles’ “Yesterday.” That seems fitting.

Then something amazing happens: His friends sit there listening, with their mouths hanging open in rapt amazement. Ellie nearly cries. “When did you write that ?” she asks, wiping a tear from her eye.

Jack thinks she and all the others are just having him on. Another joke at his expense. He even gets a little angry at their teasing. OK, so he doesn’t sing it like McCartney. But who does?

It’s only later that Jack realizes that Ellie wasn’t joking. And he soon discovers why none of his friends recognized that iconic Beatles song. According to the internet, the British group never existed. There was never a Paul McCartney or a “Yesterday” or Beatlemania or anything. Nor were there a number of other things. Coca-Cola anyone? Smoking? The band Oasis? Nope. Nada. Not in this universe.

How could this be? Jack wonders. What does it mean? But then a bigger question hits him: What now?

Slowly, the implications of it all begin to sink in: If this is true, he’s the only person in the world who’s ever heard some of the most revolutionary pop songs ever written. In fact, any time he plays one, people instantly think he’s the author. The Lennon-McCartney catalogue is apparently his to do with as he pleases. Suddenly his dreams of fame and acclaim are well within his reach.

All Jack has to do now is remember the songs chords and lyrics. Oh, and not crack under the increasing pressure of being crowned as the greatest pop genius in history for songs he didn’t actually write.

Positive Elements

Jack’s seeming good fortune does indeed generate fame and wealth for him. But he eventually realizes that those longed-for rewards can come at an unexpectedly high price. To gain them, he has to sacrifice things that he really values, including an important relationship and his own integrity.

Ellie, for her part, is always consistent, supportive and loving toward Jack. “I want you to be happy,” she earnestly tells him, even though she obviously knows he’s not making the wisest choices—choices that are quietly breaking her heart.

The film suggests that the simple joys of life—love, marriage, family—yield the richest, most satisfying rewards. For instance, Jack meets a man who was famous and died young in Jack’s world; but in this alternate reality, he’s a simple man who lived a long, productive life. The man speaks warmly of the joys of loving dearly, and living plainly and having integrity. He suggests that there’s a simple way for Jack to deal with his own relational woes: “Tell the girl you love that you love her,” the man says warmly. “And tell the truth whenever you can.” That lesson is reinforced by the time the credits roll.

Spiritual Elements

As mentioned above, Ellie declares that she believes God wants Jack to perform and share his musical gifts. Real world pop singer Ed Sheeran takes an interest in Jack, and his manager, Debra, takes Jack on as a client. She suggests that Sheeran is the equivalent of John the Baptist, “Basically warming the world up for you, The Messiah!” We also see a reference to the pope on a computer screen.

Sexual Content

It quickly becomes clear that Jack and Ellie have never had a physically intimate side to their longstanding relationships. “Not once,” Ellie proclaims when someone presumes they’ve had sex (though she does, perhaps jokingly, reference other casual flings she’s had). Their physical contact is generally limited to a hug and a peck on the cheek. (In fact, a good friend of Jack’s named Rocky repeatedly mentions, in lightly crude terms, that if he were Jack he would get physical with Ellie in a hurry.)

Ellie casually enquires about Jack’s sex life after he becomes a rock star. Jack self-consciously admits that there was a certain Russian girl he connected with. That encounter apparently took place after someone told Jack he should find someone to “shag” following a mesmerizing performance.

As their relationship gradually progress, Jack and Ellie grow more affectionate as Jack realizes he has feelings for her, too. One booze-filled night ends with the pair of them in Jack’s hotel room, where they begin kissing passionately. It looks as if they’re about to consummate their relationship, but Ellie worries that Jack still isn’t willing to make an emotional commitment that matches the physical one. “I have no desire to be a one night stand,” Ellie tells him before awkwardly and abruptly leaving. Soon, Jack learns that she’s in a relationship with one of their other friends.

Eventually they do share a night together. We see them tumble onto a bed locked in an embrace, but the camera cuts away after that. (We see Jack shirtless the next morning as Ellie wraps her arms around him while standing at a bedroom window.) They voice their love for each other. [ Spoiler Warning ] Shortly after that consummation, they marry and have a couple of children.

Some of Ellie’s outfits reveal cleavage. Jack’s manager at one point tries to kiss him, perhaps intent on something more, but the two of them are interrupted.

Violent Content

Jack gets hit by a bus while riding on a dark street, and he lands painfully on his face. After the accident, he just lies on the ground barely moving and moaning until someone from the bus helps him. He’s hospitalized, his face a bruised and swollen mess (and now minus two teeth).

Crude or Profane Language

Several s-words and one unfinished pairing of “mother” with the f-word join exclamations of “a–” and “h—” and a half dozen uses of “d–n.” Jesus’ name is misused about eight times, and God’s is profaned a half dozen times (twice in combination with the word “d–“). We also hear quite a few uses of the British profanity “bloody.”

Drug and Alcohol Content

Jack, Ellie and most of the other characters drink beer, wine or champagne regularly and at nearly every social and party setting. In a couple cases, Ellie gets a bit tipsy and unsteady on her feet. One time, she and Jack party all night, consuming beer, glasses of brandy and about a dozen or so small bottles of booze from a hotel room’s mini-bar. They both get quite drunk.

At one point, Jack asks for a Coke and a flight attendant balks, thinking he’s referencing the narcotic (since Coca-Cola and cigarettes don’t exist in this alternate reality).

Jack’s slightly goofy friend Rocky self-describes himself as a “useless druggy and drunk” (which is a fairly accurate self-portrait), and indeed we do see him seemingly under the influence on a regular basis. Even when he claims to be sober at one point, he quickly amends that statement to admit he’s already had a couple of drinks that day.

Other Negative Elements

Jack lies repeatedly about his songwriting abilities. That said, the ongoing deception clearly takes a toll on him as well, which suggests that the film understands the cost of living a lie.

Jack’s friends aren’t always very kind in their teasing ways. And Jack’s new manager, Debra, repeatedly grouses about having to deal with the fact that Jack is so physically unappealing and unpresentable. She’s also driven by a single motivation in life: making money. And she makes it plain that she’ll take advantage of anyone, including Jack, to stockpile more of it.

The Beatles famously opined that even a pile of cash “Can’t Buy Me Love.” No matter who you are, though, it can be pretty tempting to sit back after a hard day’s night and fantasize about having, or being , more. It’s a temptation, albeit perhaps a theoretical one, that we’re all vulnerable to:

What if a roving Hollywood rep spotted your photogenic grace via social media?

What if the lead singer of your favorite band heard you singing along at a concert and invited you onstage to take over?

What if the local sports team inexplicably recognized your superior athletic gifts and offered you a multi-million dollar contract to sign with them?

Of course, in the face of all those fantasy what ifs , it’s always good to have something that’ll bring you safely back to Earth, too: some person to point at the truly valuable stuff of life and remind you of the possible costs that accompany fame, ease and plenty. Yesterday is that kind of fable-like reminder. It’s sentimentally sweet, funny, endearing and thoughtful. And it’s filled with tons of incredible Beatles tunes to boot.

However—and this is a pretty sizable however —there are a number of things in this romantic comedy that could leave moviegoers hesitant about making this flight of fancy their date -night choice. Viewers will need to navigate quite a bit of drinking and some suggestively sensual moments. On top of that, there are enough profane misuses of Jesus’ name alone to make many viewers, uh, “Twist and Shout.”

All in all, Yesterday’ s missteps may leave some viewers pining for the even sweeter movie it could have been.

After spending more than two decades touring, directing, writing and producing for Christian theater and radio (most recently for Adventures in Odyssey, which he still contributes to), Bob joined the Plugged In staff to help us focus more heavily on video games. He is also one of our primary movie reviewers.

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Yesterday – Film Review

All You Need Is Love

Imagine a world without one of the most famous bands of all time and their timeless songs. Yesterday is set in such a world. Richard Curtis and Danny Boyle have teamed up to give us a heart-warming rom-com, one that’s a little predictable at times but also full of funny little twists and touching moments.

The story starts with Jack Malik, a struggling musician who is just about ready to give up trying to make it in the music business, despite the support of his best friend and manager, Ellie. One night during a blackout, Jack gets hit by a bus and wakes up in a very different world. Everyone has forgotten The Beatles apart from him. It’s here that he realises that he may have struck gold and decides to play the famous songs to the world, claiming them as his own.

The concept of Yesterday is definitely an interesting and original idea. While the love story between Jack and Ellie is a little predictable, the world building and premise itself should be enough to see you through as you experience our musical history in a very different way. There’s some nice twists implemented too, especially given this new world has also forgotten Coca Cola and cigarettes.

As expected, the soundtrack is excellent and mainly made up of The Beatles’ songs, but that should please fans as well as non-fans alike. After all, The Beatles have given us some of the most unforgettable and beautiful songs that has ever been written. It’s also worth noting that Himesh Patel gives a really solid performance singing everyone’s famous tunes, breathing life into the film.

The acting from both Patel and Lilly James is pretty good too and while their chemistry is sometimes a bit hit and miss, they still manage to bring their love story to life, thanks to the clever script. The inclusion of Ed Sheeran, while comical at times, could have been reduced to just a few cameo moments though as his appearances feel forced and bring back bad memories of his role in Game of Thrones.

The movie also boasts a lot of glitzy exposition; every time Jack travels to a new place, the name of the place is written in big bold letters across the screen, adding some spark to the movie. There’s also an interesting montage where we see Jack looking at three giant screens around him, showing his songs becoming hits and his popularity growing, with the help of footage from media around the world. Visually, it’s a lovely moment and certainly adds some charm to the title.

Richard Curtis has written many romantic comedies in the past and in many ways Yesterday feels like the opposite of Notting Hill, where this time the male protagonist is the famous one in the love story. However, the overall themes of the film certainly shine through with some important messages – the importance of music and how it affects people is reflected in Jack’s dilemma. He’s torn between wanting to become famous, but also doing the right thing by sharing music with the world.

Yesterday is a heart-warming and fun musical ride. While the love story is a bit predictable, the movie manages to surprise with some fun twists and a well-paced script. For me though, one of the main messages of the movie is clear. Just like in The Beatles’ song, All you Need in Love, you can have money and fame but it is really the people in your life that matters the most. The world would certainly be a very sad place without it.

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• Verdict - 7/10 7/10

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It Ends with Us

Adapted from the Colleen Hoover novel, Lily overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life. A chance meeting with a neurosurgeon sparks a connection but Lily begins to see sides of ... Read all Adapted from the Colleen Hoover novel, Lily overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life. A chance meeting with a neurosurgeon sparks a connection but Lily begins to see sides of him that remind her of her parents' relationship. Adapted from the Colleen Hoover novel, Lily overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life. A chance meeting with a neurosurgeon sparks a connection but Lily begins to see sides of him that remind her of her parents' relationship.

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• Trivia The casting of Blake Lively and Justin Baldoni as Lily and Ryle caused backlash from fans because in the book Lily is 23 and Ryle is 30, while Lively is 35 and Baldoni is 39. Author of the book Colleen Hoover explained in an interview that she wanted to age the characters up in the movie in an effort to correct a mistake she made in the book. She said, "Back when I wrote It Ends With Us, the new adult [genre] was very popular. You were writing college-age characters. That's what I was contracted to do. I made Lily very young. I didn't know that neurosurgeons went to school for 50 years. There's not a 20-something neurosurgeon. As I started making this movie, I'm like, 'We need to age them out, because I messed up.' So, that's my fault."
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• Aug 8, 2024
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• August 9, 2024 (United States)
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• Romper El Círculo
• Plainfield, New Jersey, USA
• Wayfarer Studios
• Sony Pictures Television
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• $25,000,000 (estimated)
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• Aug 11, 2024
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• Runtime 2 hours 10 minutes

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