Yesterday (2019)

Directed by: Danny Boyle | 116 minutes | comedy, fantasy, romance | Actors: Himesh Patel, Lily James, Sophia Di Martino, Ellise Chappell, Meera Syal, Sanjeev Bhaskar, Kate McKinnon, Alexander Arnold, Harry Michell, Vincent Franklin, Joel Fry, Michael Kiwanuka, Ed Sheeran, Karl Theobald, Karma Sood, Jaimie Kollmer , James Corden, Camilla Rutherford, Sarah Lancashire, Justin Edwards

The idea alone deserves a big thumbs up: in ‘Yesterday’, Jack (Himesh Patel) discovers that in a global power outage, the whole world has forgotten about The Beatles except for him. It’s just like they never existed. A search in Google only yields pictures of beetles, there are no albums or photos to be found, the songs only exist in his head. Jack is a born musician who, however, is not recognized for his own work, no matter how much effort his manager – and good childhood friend – Ellie (Lily James) puts into it.

It doesn’t get through to Jack at first. But when some friends react genuinely surprised, moved and delighted when he plays ‘Yesterday’ on the guitar they gave him after his discharge from the hospital, he understands that he is not being tricked. Something really strange is going on.

Jack then goes to work putting all the Beatles songs on paper. Friend and foe alike are amazed at his writing skills. Ellie arranges to record a demo with a local music producer. The ball is slowly rolling. But it’s only when Ed Sheeran (playing himself) gets involved that things start to get tough. In no time, Jack is world famous and everyone wants to know more about this talented musician.

‘Yesterday’ is a delightfully imaginative romantic comedy written by Richard Curtis (‘Love Actually’, ‘Notting Hill’, ‘About Time’) and directed by Danny Boyle. Danny Boyle once again shows his versatility as a director. After a thriller (“Shallow Grave”), drug comedy (“Trainspotting”), horror (“28 Days Later”), family film (“Millions”), science fiction (“Sunshine”), drama with a dash of Bollywood (“Slumdog Millionaire”) ‘) and biography (‘Steve Jobs’) there’s little chance there’s anything this guy can’t do. Boyle seems to reinvent himself with every film. With ‘Yesterday’ this duo shows in an inventive way how brilliant those Beatles songs really are. Because you may not think about it every day, but in this perspective it is obvious. Imagine that there really is an artist who writes these songs one after the other and also interprets them in an excellent way, without ever having heard of The Beatles or their songs, it is hard to believe.

‘Yesterday’ has two fun protagonists, the scenes with Himesh Patel and Lily James sparkle. The scenario has – except for a single mishap – speed and is well put together. Fortunately, that mishap feels like a deleted scene that doesn’t have much influence on the rest of the story. Of course, we don’t go into too much detail about how it is possible that a power outage caused this, but you shouldn’t dwell on that too much. There are also funny finds in it, but it would be a shame to mention them here. Special mention to Sanjeev Bhaskar and Meera Syal, who have fantastic comedic timing as Jack’s parents. Like a bunch of fools, they waltz over Jack’s suddenly emerging talent as if he had just learned to tie his shoelaces. A world without The Beatles? New! But we definitely don’t want to miss Danny Boyle and Richard Curtis either.