I knew I had to see Yesterday the minute I saw the trailer. It had such a fun concept–the power goes out all over the world, and when it comes back up, failing musician Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) finds himself on an alternate Earth where the Beatles (and a few other random things we find out about over the course of the movie) simply never existed. Jack, who mostly remembers all of the Beatles songs, is faced with a choice: should he “write” all of those famous songs again and take that success for himself? The trailer already tells you that yes, he does. Hijinks ensue.
It’s a really fun, sweet movie that still has a lot to say about the value of art and the feeling of being an imposter–though in Jack’s case, his imposter syndrome is very real, considering he didn’t actually write the songs he’s selling. The film also does a great job of showing what a difference finding a willing audience makes. Arguably, Jack’s songwriting is not terribly brilliant on his own, but we still see him struggle through some tepid gigs where he’s being ignored when he’s playing his stolen Beatles songs. What starts getting the Beatles music back out in the world are two events: First, he’s lucky enough to find one person who really gets in to what he’s doing (Gavin, who helps him record demos and get his music out on the internet), and second, he’s lucky enough to fall on the ear of someone much bigger than he is (Ed Sheeran) who puts him in front of an audience that actually wants to listen. That’s when things take off.
I know it’s a conceit of the movie (and it’s getting put in every synopsis) that Jack’s success is an overnight thing, and it’s all carried on the backs of the brilliant songs that he didn’t actually write. But from the perspective of someone who has been laboring in the word mines for a while, that’s a very simplistic view–and the movie at least subtly acknowledges it. Jack’s a total, unknown failure… until he suddenly isn’t. Arguably, the Beatles songs are what finally bumped him into “being noticed” range, but if he couldn’t have performed them worth a damn, the words wouldn’t have done him any good either. Mostly, it puts me in mind of how many writers I’ve seen being touted as “overnight” successes when they’ve been chipping away at the thing for years. It’s all about getting the right piece in front of the right person at the right time.
Also, I’ll admit right here that I had no fucking idea what Ed Sheeran looked like, and didn’t realize he was playing himself until the credits said so. Go ahead, laugh. But I sure do have a lot of respect for Ed Sheeran and his sense of humor about himself, now.
A lot of the emotional focus of the movie does end up being about the relationship between Jack and his “manager” Ellie (Lily James), who has been carrying a torch for him for years. Once Jack starts to get famous, Ellie feels they’re no longer on equal footing… and also knows that he can’t give her the sort of relationship she wants. I had a lot of respect for Ellie knowing what she wanted, and not compromising on it. I have less respect for the movie later hitting on the “public declaration of love” trope, which is one I really dislike.
All in all, though, a very sweet movie, and one I thought was a lot of fun. I’ll also admit I’m enjoying watching music nerds rehashing SFF nerd discussions about ripple effects in alternate histories. This is probably one where the less you know about music history, the more you can just enjoy it and cheerfully ignore the flaws in the central conceit.
There is a thing or two more I will mention, but they are SPOILERS, so do not read further if you don’t want to be SPOILED.