Yesterday

Richard Curtis’ relationship with romcoms has been a long and winding road. Despite being the crowning glory of British self-deprecating romance flicks and England’s answer to Nora Ephron, cornering the market in the nineties and early noughties with Four Weddings, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones and Love Actually, his contributions in recent years have been largely smothered by the deluge of date night blockbusters and the firm grasp he once had on the pulse of cult phenomenons appears to have slipped. One pirate radio ensemble, a time travel sop-fest and one tortoise-themed TV movie later and he’s buddied up with national treasure Danny Boyle for a heart-warming feel-good summer splash.

When Jack Malik is hit by a bus and thrown from his bike during a power outage that sweeps the entire planet, he wakes to discover he is missing his beard, two front teeth and most of his sanity when he realises he’s the only one who can remember The Beatles. Cue an adorable underdog tale of musical theft and international stardom for our leading Lowestoft lad.

The first third of the movie is arguably the strongest and the gags fall thick and fast. Credit where credit’s due, there was unlimited fun to be wrung out of the gimmick of the Beatles’ greatest hits being massively underappreciated, misinterpreted and generally shat on throughout. The fact that Oasis don’t exist either in this new world given how much Beatles material they riffed off is one of the best jests of the bunch.

Boyle (Trainspotting) brings his trademark magical mystery tour of wonky camera angles, colourful cut scenes and trippy close-ups that have more or less become synonymous with his entire existence, however the clip-art scene changes and naff fonts (some letters trundle through a tunnel like a steam train, others swirl above a moving roundabout like circling birds) feel trite, grating and generally more of a GCSE media project than legitimate effects. The worst sections came across like a lacklustre Slumdog Millionaire and the ‘Fame Montage’ (you’ll know it when you see it) came out of the blue and was neither asked for nor needed.

Himesh Patel rocks the clumsy charisma that we were once gifted in the vessel of Hugh Grant, though there’s something in his wonderful gap-toothed charm and bashful self-awareness that feels very much his own. His covers of each Beatles hit are easy on the ear and add enough of his own quirk, funk and flair to make you want to twist and shout. They feel untampered, raw and rugged and the way the tracks are arranged to march alongside his character narrative and echo his trials and tribulations is neigh on genius – Jack having a breakdown whilst playing Help! at the Pier Hotel is as side-tickling as it is devastating.

Lily James is a joy as Jack’s best friend and manager Ellie Appleton, and the chemistry between her and Patel is tangible to the point of painful as you follow their helter skelter of ups and downs. Whilst James brings her A-game, Curtis brings his E or F game when writing her backstory and the result is an emotionally layered performance arm wrestling with some depressingly lazy character development to the point where at times she is little more than a trompe l’oeil there to facilitate the interesting voyage and well fleshed out struggles of her male co-star.

Joel Fry has swagger to boot as Jack’s unreliable stoner sidekick Rocky, and though much of his dialogue feels lifted straight from Spike’s out-takes in Notting Hill, that’s fine because Spike was such a freakily adorable muppet to start with, you’ll basically be content to watch him strut about in his nowhere man Joel Fry avatar.

Let’s take a tangent to talk about Ed Sheeran appearing as himself. Can he act? Kind of. Is his participation as much a narcissistic exploration and megalomaniacal indulgence as his cameo in GOT Season 7? Not quite, but not far off. Do the tongue-in-cheek jokes at his expense take the edge off and make his participation nearly, dare I say it, oh-so close to being enjoyable? Sure. But did we need him advertised his new album amongst the trailers or having the penultimate song of the flick picked from his latest release? No fucking way. All-in-all, result or failure on the part of the creators? Bit of both. Would he have become a joyous contribution if they’d cut his screen time by half and scrapped his shameless self-promotion? You betcha! It’s worth it just to see Jack’s dad ask him “Do you know where the pickle is?” with no recognition whatsoever of his spangled stardom.

Go see Yesterday tomorrow if you can, though it’s hard to say if it’s really a tale for today or yesteryear. I don’t want to ruin the party, but the love story does feel superbly wish-fulfilly and stale in sections, though the takeaway message of unity through music in times of trouble is enough to give the story legs, even if it trips over its own feet and stumbles from time to time. As a Curtis film, it’s sub-par, as an easy and chucklesome watch, despite being here, there and everywhere, Curtis gets by with a little help from his friends.

6/10