John Lennon. Paul McCartney. George Harrison. Ringo Starr. The Beatles. Uttering these names, not only do they make you think of iconic albums like Yellow Submarine and Abbey Road, but they also remind us of the global and cultural impact The Beatles had on the world. They inspired a whole new generation of music, a whole new way of thinking about the world, and a whole new way of thinking about pop culture. For many, they were the leaders of the 60’s counterculture. Thus, when I heard the premise of Danny Boyle’s Yesterday, I was intrigued. A world without the Beatles, that’s an interesting rabbit hole to look around. However, after the first thirty minutes of the film, I knew Yesterday was just going to be another warm and fuzzy sing-along.
The premise of Yesterday is simple. After a worldwide power outage that results in failing singer-songwriter Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) getting hit by a bus, Jack discovers that he is the only person in the world who remembers The Beatles. Due to this revelation, Jack decides to turn The Beatles’ songs into his own and release them to the world to achieve the stardom he’s always wanted. However, complications arise as Jack starts to feel guilt over not only the songs not being his, but also abandoning Ellie (Lily James), his childhood friend who has been pining and rooting for him all her life.
The problem with Yesterday is the fact that it is trying so hard to please and be universal. Through its attempt to please, Yesterday tries to be two (crowd-pleasing) things at once — a romantic comedy and a Beatles congratulatory film — and in the end it fails at becoming either. No, one is not a subplot of another. Instead, both clash head to head to the point of confusion and boredom that causes a strange inconsistency throughout the film.
At one moment, the film raises itself to the max, encouraging a loud sing-a-long to our favorite Beatles songs. However, seconds later, that brashness clashes with the softness and lightness of the tendencies that romantic comedies often demand. As a result, this leads to zero development of the characters they force us to care about (James and Patel are good with what they are given, which is not much) while allowing us to develop a hyper-awareness towards the predictability of the story, both ruining the fun of the romantic comedy side of the film while also turning its once intriguing premise into a cheesy and boring mess.
However, the narrative structure is not the only thing that suffers due to Yesterday’s innate need to “be universal.” The treatment of its source material takes a toll as well. Instead of taking the time to unfold the consequences of The Beatles not existing and understanding the influences they have had on the world, its ramifications are only seen as one-line jokes. Instead, Yesterday relies on the fact that the music The Beatles created were powerful, and the problem with just relying on that is we already know it.
We know that The Beatles created some of the most iconic music moments of our lifetime. We know that they inspired a new wave of cultural moments. By relying on the obvious, Yesterday turns The Beatles into a novelty rather than allowing us to understand the power of their music and their overall existence. As a result, The Beatles just becomes background music for a romantic side plot that no one was asking for. I was intrigued by Yesterday because it dared to pose a challenging question. However, instead of exploring the what-if, Yesterday peaks as a boring romance karaoke film simply telling me how great The Beatles are, playing one hit after another, giving me at most the same enjoyment and fulfillment I felt when I listened to Abbey Road immediately after the film.
If anything, Yesterday is sure to please. With the success of films like Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman, which rely on the popularity of their music to power their films, Yesterday finds itself in a similar position, and like its musical predecessors, Yesterday has nothing interesting to say. Through its blatant in its attempt to please its audience and be nothing more, Yesterday is a confusing, strange, and boring narrative and structural mess. It’s unfortunate. Yesterday invites us to think about a truly intriguing question: what is a world without The Beatles? However, Boyle’s only answer to this question is that there should not be a world without The Beatles. If that’s the case, what was the point of even posing the question?
2.5/5 STARS