The idea of a world without The Beatles is a concept of something that might come from a Twilight Zone episode, yet here we see it given to a film that at its core, is an uplifting romantic comedy from Director Danny Boyle.

Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) is a struggling musician, with no fan base to speak of except his life long friend and manager Ellie (Lilly James). After playing to an empty crowd at a festival Jack decides to call it quits, as he believes his career in music to be a pipe dream. However, when Jack is struck by a bus following a world-wide blackout, it would seem that the world has completely forgotten about the most famous music group of all time, The Beatles, all except himself of course. Once this realisation hits Jack, he begins to capitalize on this knowledge and begins to show the world that he might just be the greatest song writer who ever lived.

The plot is such a great premise that it makes it very easy to recommend to someone without having to go into any details past the first twenty minutes of the film. Danny Boyle’s directing is instantly recognisable here, the use of the fantastic music he was given access to and a great score from Daniel Pemberton, as well as his vibrant use of colour here thanks to cinematography from Christopher Ross. The film is almost two hours long but is so fast moving that it does not feel remotely close to that length. The only time the film falters greatly are when you are taken out of the narrative due to performances in the film that for me brought the film down immensely.

I previously mentioned the first twenty minutes being fantastic earlier, this is due to that is around the mark that we are introduced the character played by Ed Sheeran, himself. Once Jack begins to make his music heard in his local area he quickly grabs the attention of real-life musician Ed Sheeran who is eager to bring him along on his European tour. Although he is playing himself, Sheeran clearly is not an actor and really it is not his fault that he doesn’t fit into this film neatly. Although the film is clearly based in our reality, bringing in someone as widely famous as Sheeran is ultimately distracting and pulls you right out the film.

Ultimately though the film works, the relationship between Jack and Ellie is an easy one to attach yourself to due to the fantastic performances from the two leads. The note that the film ends on comes from a clear passion for The Beatles from writer Richard Curtis, as the film really shows how important any pop culture icon can be in our world.

Yesterday is an uplifting and entertaining romantic comedy, only slightly dragged down from a distracting performance.

Director: Danny Boyle
Writers: Jack Barth (story by), Richard Curtis (screenplay)
Stars: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Sophia Di Martino
Kyle Gaffney
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