☆☆☆½
Watching Yesterday is like listening to a famous singer forget the words: The artistry is still dazzling but there's something off. The hard edges of director Danny Boyle and the cloying sweetness of writer Richard Curtis are constantly clashing, so Yesterday feels unsettled and incomplete despite being enjoyably fulfilling.
Yesterday begins with a hint of Twilight Zone fantasy as a global power outage hits for exactly 12 minutes. When the power comes on, everything seem the same, except that no one remembers massive pop-culture icons like the Beatles and Coca-Cola. Then this wonderful fantasy set-up is almost completely forgotten.
Jack (Himesh Patel) is a typically struggling songwriter who plays pub gigs arranged by his erstwhile manager (Lily James), whose infatuation with him has long been ignored. When the lights go out, Jack is knocked down by a bus and wakes up with the chance to single-handedly become the Beatles by "writing" and recording their songs to an unsuspecting public.
The pure rom-com elements are played up and some of the most intriguing elements are barely addressed: What does a Beatles-less world look like? What would have happened to pop music? Pop culture? Jack's understandable "imposter syndrome" is little more than a plot device.
Then there's an emotional gut-punch toward the end of the film that captures everything that could have been ... and it's over far too soon. You go into Yesterday hoping for a revolution and leave mostly content to just let it be, sweet yet not quite satisfying.
Viewed June 29, 2019 -- AMC Universal City
1950
Yesterday begins with a hint of Twilight Zone fantasy as a global power outage hits for exactly 12 minutes. When the power comes on, everything seem the same, except that no one remembers massive pop-culture icons like the Beatles and Coca-Cola. Then this wonderful fantasy set-up is almost completely forgotten.
Jack (Himesh Patel) is a typically struggling songwriter who plays pub gigs arranged by his erstwhile manager (Lily James), whose infatuation with him has long been ignored. When the lights go out, Jack is knocked down by a bus and wakes up with the chance to single-handedly become the Beatles by "writing" and recording their songs to an unsuspecting public.
The pure rom-com elements are played up and some of the most intriguing elements are barely addressed: What does a Beatles-less world look like? What would have happened to pop music? Pop culture? Jack's understandable "imposter syndrome" is little more than a plot device.
Then there's an emotional gut-punch toward the end of the film that captures everything that could have been ... and it's over far too soon. You go into Yesterday hoping for a revolution and leave mostly content to just let it be, sweet yet not quite satisfying.
Viewed June 29, 2019 -- AMC Universal City
1950
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